PLUNDER SENT BY AIR

Hokitika Guardian, 17 March 1932, Page 7

PLUNDER SENT BY AIR

SMASH AND GRAB ARTISTS,

POLICE METHODS TIGHTEN.

There is reason to believe that, so far as London is concerned, j>he reorgan’i'salion of police duties, which came iilto operation recently, will do much to curtail the activities of smash-and-grab raiders without cars, and to a certain extent those of motor bandits. The -success of a smash-and-grab raid' depends largely on ft knowledge by the thieves of the conditions prevailing in the locality of a selected shop or ofhce at all hours of the day. That has been easy in the past for police officers nave patrolled their beats with the regularity of clockwork, being at certain points and in certain places at the same hour every day. Now ? however, that is all altered ; no one can say where a policeman will be at a given time.

ESCAPE AT SPEED

'Motor banditry is another problem altogether, and admittedly one of the most difficult the police have to deal (with. When motor cars are used as auxiliaries to smash-and-grab raids thi conditions already mentioned will apply. Indeed, 'they are operative in any raid, such, for instance, as that which took place in Maddox Street. New Bond Street, when a jeweller’s manager was robbed of £20,000 worth of gems. But they do provide thi s added facility for the thief—he can make his escape at speed with odds very much in his favour, if it should happen that no police ear is in the vicinity. “No force has yet evolved an entirely satisfactory method 'for dealing with this,” said a police officer.

HOW PUBLIC CAN HELP

“There is one thing the public should notice, and that is if motorists took more cave of their cars we should not ’hear so much about motor bandits. These thieves steal a car which has been left unattended, use it for their purpose, and then abandon it. They do not use cat's of their own.’ Ano the t matter to which the police have directed attention is the tracking down of receivers—men and women, who give a small fraction of the real value ot stolen property and then dispose of it, mostly on the Continent, at a high profit. An travel provides « quick means, emissaries secreting jewellery about, their persons to cheat tlie Customs.