BURIED DIAMONDS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1987, 7 June 1919, Page 1

BURIED DIAMONDS.

FIND IN A DUBLIN GARDEN

Four diamonds valued at nearly £4,000, which were stolen in the West End of London, were recently dug’ up in a Dublin garden in circumstances which read like an episode from a novel.

The stones —a flawless Cape variety —were the property of Mr William Giles, a Hatton Garden broker. On 10th February he was introduced to a fashionably-dressed young woman, who stated that a naval officer was desirous of making her a present of some diamonds. She liked those Mr Giles produced, and after a Bond Street jeweller had valued the stones, they drove to a fiat in Great Portland Street, where the officer was supposed to be wait-

Instead, the unsuspecting broker was locked in the fiat, and the woman and the diamonds disappeared. Subsequently Mr Giles received information which led to him personally recovering the stones. ‘‘l was asked if I was prepared to go to Ireland to get them,” he said. “I’d practically given up hope of ever seeing them again, and they were not insured, so you can imagine how promptly I replied ‘Yes.’ “Willi a solicitor I caught: the night mail, and on the boat I was informed that we should have to do some digging. From that T inferred that the diamonds were buried, and my surmise proved correct. We went to a house in Dublin —an ordinary middle-class residence —and the landlady admitted that a woman had been staying (here who was fond of gardening. She indicated a patch near a wall at the back where her lodger had worked.

“I was instructed that the stones wore buried under a clump of four narcissi. There were the narcissi, ami the landlady giving mo permission lo dig, I borrowed a spade and a trowel, and began turning over the soil.

“After digging down a foot and

finding nothing 1 was naturally inclined to suspect a hoax. However, I persisted for another six inches, and suddenly unearthed a stout cardboard box rather larger than a matchbox.

“I didn't inspect the box until I was in the street again, and then, on opening' it, there J saw wrapped in cotton wool my four diamonds—two large ones loose, and two smaller set in a palladium (the substitute- for platinum) ring—somewhat damp from the moisture of the earth, but otherwise intact!” The police ultimately effected the arrest: of a woman in connection with the robbery.