SMASH AND GRAB

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1932, Page 6

SMASH AND GRAB

INCREASING THEFT RAIDS

LONDON, MAY 22.

Crime is increasing. “Something must be done,” the London newspapers say in chorus. Smash-and-grab car raids have followed each other in quick succession during the past weeks. The number of crimes of this kind during the past ■fchrSs moffHirfT'hbSHy'2oo.

Six years ago a New Zealander invented a device which made smash-and-grab raids impossible. For the outlay of about £IOO and a few shillings a month for upkeep, every jeweller in London could have been definitey protected. Two or three jewellers fitted their windows with this excellent device,- but one has heard nothing about it since. Possibly the shopkeepers prefer the insurance money to immunity from this form ol theft. At least £IOO,OOO worth of jewellery has been stolen by car bandits within a radius of a quarter of a mile in the West End during the last few months.

Shopkeepers, post office officials, and bank cashiers are alarmed (says the “News-Chronicle”). Jewellers are arming themselves and pleading for greater police protection. Underwriters, who are paying huge sums in insurance are considering the formation of patrols of plain-clothed men as guards. Action for defensive measures is being taken by Mr E. Sinclair, whose jewellery shop in Burlington Gardens, London has just been raided for the second time to the tune of £ISOO. He is to confer with fellow-jewellers in this area. The National : Association of Goldsmiths also has the matter under consideration.

A MATTER OF SECONDS.

What shopping crowds at first thought was a fantastic scene in Burlington Gardens one morning last week was in reality one of the most audacious smash-and-grab raids yet perpetrated in the West End of London. Three well-dressed young men operated with such swiftness, ease, and completeness that they escaped with £IOOO worth of diamond and emerald rings, and baffled strenuous efforts to arrest them.

About 10.30 the men drove up in a car from the direction of New Bond Street. They passed roadmen, taxicab drivers, and shoppers, and stopped in front of a jewellery shop. Two of them jumped out, and one of them, using a “jack” covered . with brown paper, smashed the double plate glass window, then plunged the instrument through the glass of a ease containing rings, grabbed a pad of these, and drove away through Burlington Street. The car later was found deserted in Golden Square.

The affair occupied only a lew seconds. When people near realised what had happened some gave chase, hut it was fruitless.