A BERLIN MYSTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1930, Page 1

A BERLIN MYSTERY

TUNNEL IN CEMETERY

, TWO BROTHERS ARRESTED. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). BERLIN, January 12. The biggest and most brilliant bank iunnel robbery in Germany, perpetrated on February 19, 1929, is recalled by the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the arrest of the brothers Franz and Erich Sass, in connection with another amazing tunnelling episode. The caretaker of a school adjoining a disused cemetery in the Charlottenburg quarter of the city noticed that a fresh heap of sand in a remote corner grew daily, and that it contained human bones, and also fragments of wreaths and coffins. Weeks went by. The heap grew, and the staff of the school heard a muffled noise of hammering. Finally, the police were notified, and, as the result off a careful watch, they discovered a perpendicular shaft, carefully and . skilfully lined with boards, leading to a subterranean chamber, ten feet long and six feet wide and seven feet high, concreted and boarded.

The police , maintained their vigil for several nights fruitlessly, until two men were seen to climb the cemetery wall; but they escaped, after a ehase among the tombstones. One hour later, detectives, who were posted at the home of the Sass brothers, saw them return bareheaded, and arrested them. It is believed that the purpose of their tunnelling was to make a hoarding place, but it is doubtful whether the brothers can be charged with any crime.