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GEM STOLEN

ROBBERY AT HATTON GARDEN

“SMASH AND GRAB”

Of all the “smash-and-grab” robberies successfully accomplished in London during the past year, none compares for spectacular daring and deliberate execution with the theft from a window in Hatton Garden, in September, of a diamond valued at £20,000. The jewel has an international reputation and is one of the largest and rarest of its kind.

The actual thief smashed the window with a new electrical instrument, pn'ise'd apart an iron grill, and was away with the precious diamond in a waiting motor-car before anyone realised what had happened. Then an exciting pursuit by police and civilinas began, •but the jewel gang in their car, were soon lost in a maze of narrow streets and confused traffic.

Five people were in the shop, of Messrs Samuel H. Harris and Sion, thei jewellers and bullion {merchants, when tlie glass front was shattered and the grill pushed in by a modern weapon never used before. Instantly a diamond of 331 carats and worth £20,000 at least, was snatched from its pink velvet case.. All the other jewels displayed in the window were ignored. A car was waiting on the opposite side of the road, and was actually moving even before [the glass 'had) been broken. The thief, aged about, 25 made a spectacular dive through the window of the moving car. , Tlie instrument which smashed the window and prised open the grill is believed to have been electrically operated. It has a sharp point, and in appearance is rather like a gardener’s trowel, except that it is brass in ooiour and has scissor-like handles. Scotland Yard detectives who are investigating the robbery knew of the existence of this special glass-shattering instrument, but had been unable to get possession of a specimen.

Four men took part in the raid, and before the general hue and cry a woman who suspected Jt'hat something !was wrong, attempted to strike the driver of the car with her umbrella.

THE “KING OF DIAMONDS’

A member of the watchmaking firm opposite the raided shop stated, “I saw a man insert a trowel-like instrument just below the main , bar of the steel grill, which opened and allowed him to put his hand inside. As he ran bade into the road lie beckoned to the car and -said, ‘Hurry up.’ He was driven rapidly away, with scores of pjeople shouting and rushing after the car. 111 a few moments the street was in- an uproar, and taxicabs and pedestrians started to . chase the saloon which was soon'lost to sight. The.-thief made the journey along Hatton Garden lying full length on th e seat of the car.” , There were many other* . yaluablcl -articles in the window, including gold and silver ornaments, but the bandits had evidently made up their-minds to obtain the single stone,., whose.value will be diminished by many thousands of pounds if it is cut up.

Mr- Samuel -Harris: is .known as Hatton Garden’s “King of Diamonds.” His- brother, Mr L. Harris- who aiso carries on business as a jewel merchant, was in May last attacked a lew yards from his office by three men. One felled him with a rubber truncheon and robbed him of a bag containing £2OOO worth of jewellery. They, too, escaped in a car.

£BSO BULLION BAR IN GUTTER Mctor bandits who snatched a bar of gold worth £BSO from a bullion brokers messenger in Hatton Garden on October 2 were foiled by the courage and presence of mind of a passing motorist.

Two messengers, clerks named Higginbotham and Bently, were taking two bars of gold from the premises of their employers, Blackmore, Howard and Metherell, bullion dealers, of Hatton ■ Garden, to a firm of gold refiners in Clerkenwell Road. Each carried one ! bar, wrapped in brown paper to make it look like an ordinary parcel. A few seconds after the messengers left their office two men knocked them to th > ground, and one of the men isnatched the gold bar which Higginbotham was carrying. The second bar. fell to th e pavement, but the bandits left it and ran with the other bar to a motor-car which was waiting with the engine running. The clerks shouted: “Stop thief! Smash and grab!” But ; the car quickly accelerated and went in the direction of Clerkenwell Road.

In driving away the bandits’ car collided with that of Mr R. Johnson.

“I was driving toward the city from the West End,” Mr Johnson said, “when a car came up in ,front of me from behind a tram. The offside rear door was open and a man was jumping through it. As the car passed me the door hit my back wing, and I heard cries of ‘Stop thief!’ ‘I swung my car round and gave chase in the direction of King’s Cross. For a time I lost the bandits’ car, but eventually I caught sight of it in Clerkenwell Road. I followed it,, disregarding an automatic light signal which was against me and a policeman on point duty.

CHASE CONTINUED ON FOOT

Just as I was about to ram the bandits’ car it pulled up, and three men jumped out and ran down a passage, where they separated. I\ stopped my car and continued the chase on foot.

“Seeing a man carrying a brown paper parcel and trying to get on the back of a lorry, I tackled him in Rugby fashion, and we’ both went to the ground. I held him down by the neck until a policeman came up and took the man into custody.” Mr Johnson, who is 22, is a. keen Rugby player.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19331118.2.65

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1933, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
938

GEM STOLEN Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1933, Page 6

GEM STOLEN Hokitika Guardian, 18 November 1933, Page 6

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