MELBOURNE BURGLARY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 444, 16 June 1902, Page 3

MELBOURNE BURGLARY.

Tho reputed Melbourne burglar whe has lately boon an uninvited guest in many a Dunedin home, and has taken away with him many mementoes of his visits, may possibly bo one of the experts who have been giving work to the Melbourne police. Tho Victorian list of crimes for which no one has yet suffered has increased alarmingly of late, and the recent incidents aro unsurpassed for audacity. The men who bailed up a tram car in a Melbourne suburb a few months ago are still at large. So is tho man who at Bendigo stuck up a mine-manager in the middlo of the day on a public road, shot his horse, and robbed him of several hundred pounds. Tho other day a robbery was committed in Bourko street that for impudent audacity equalled those already quoted. Just as an old gentleman named Kiss was closing up his son’s jewellery shop, close to tho Bijou Theatre, two well-dressed young men stepped from the crowded footpath into the shop. Tho old gentleman thinking from their manner that they wero customers, turned to serve them, when he was struck down by a

’ blow on the head. Tho young men hav ’ ing shut and bolted tho front door, gaggec I and bound him, and left him lyinf on the floor after they had kicked him about the head. They then turned to the counter, and sweeping tho contents of six trays into a sack, left the shop just as young Kiss and his assistant, who had been to the theatre, and had come to look in at the shop between acts, hammered at the front door. Tho whole affair had lasted just ten minutes, but in that time, besides committing the assault the thieves had managed to get clear away with over £2OOO worth of jowellery. The men had gono so unerringly to the exact trays containing the most valuable stock, and had timed their coup so well, that no doubt was expressed by the police that the whole thing had been carefully planned. It was tho work, thoy believed, of a wellorganised gang, for thoy know that certain criminals with a reputation for burglary in several States wero at that time in Melbourne. They subsequently seem to have gone to Adelaide, where another great jewol robbery has been reported. As long as the police are powerless to deal with tho habitual criminals who loaf about tho city doing no work, so long, as the Age remarks, may such sensational crimes be expected. A curious incident in connection with the affair was that some four hours after it had taken place a city constable pickodup on a doorstep a parcel containing the works of forty of the watches stolen from Mr Kiss’s shop, many ticking away as merrily as if nothing had happened. The thioves had evidently sat down in some quiet corner after leaving the shop and had deliberately “shelled” the watches like so many oysters. In this oase, however, the oyster shells were retained.