MYSTERIOUS BANK ROBBERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1045, 31 December 1912, Page 3

MYSTERIOUS BANK ROBBERY.

Sydney, Dec 30

A mysterious robbery was discovered from the Surrey Hills branch of the Bank of New South Wales, .£2,300 having been extracted from the strongroom. The branch has just been built, and had only been used for business for halt a day. The authorities took possession on Friday, and the robbery was discovered by the teller, who sleeps on the premises. He missed a portmanteau from his room last night, and during the search found a packet of coppers iu the back yard. Hurrying inside, he discovered the strongroom had been opened andclosed again. Nearly all the money the safe contained, except a lew packets of coppers, had disappeared. The mystery arises from the fact that the strongroom was fastened with a Chubb lock, which can ouly be opened by two keys, of which the manager holds one and the teller the other. They locked the safe together on Saturday, at 1.30 o’clock, noting carefully that both keys turned. The robbers, on dosing the door, only turned the key corresponding to the teller’s, thus leaving the safe half locked. ,£4OO of the missing money consisted of gold, £1,200 in silver, a few pounds in coppers, and the balance iu notes, It would have beeu a heavy load, for tvvo portmanteaux would not carry 4 it, and tvvo bags at least must have beeu used. The irony of it is that all the bank's back yard, through which it is believed the thieves escaped, faces the Bourke Street' police barracks, where an army of constables are constantly training. The only solution suggested at present is that moulds of the locks were fakem while the strongroom was being constructed. This happened recently in the case of an important city building.