CHEAP BANK NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8346, 5 February 1913, Page 8

CHEAP BANK NOTES

£1 FOR SIXTEEN SHILLINGS HANDBAGS CHOCKFUL OF NOTES. SYDNEY, February 4. Two men with handbags accosted a resident of Monavafe. One hurriedly extracted a Bank of New South Wales pound note from his bag and earnestly requested change. He said he was willing to accept eighteen, and then sixteen shillings, but the offer was declined. It was evident that the bag was chockful of notes. It is believed that the incident has some bearing on the robbery of December 30th. Investigation of a sensational bank robbery at tho Surry Hills branch of the Bank of New South Wales on December ;J()th, when ,£2300 was abstracted from the strong'room, indicated that it was the work of a clever and daring cracksman. When the cover was removed from the locks it was evident that tho levers had been cut. They had been filed in some cases fully one-eighth of an inch. The cracksman displayed extreme carefulness. Tho locks wore marked “T. 8.," meaning "top and bottom,” so that no mistake could be made in replacing them. The levers were also marked with tho same object. The strong-room door had been hung six weeks. The thieves must have visited the premises one night while they wore unoccupied, removed tho locks, cut them to fit their keys, and replaced them. The robbers touched no part of the locks with their bare hands, and no finger-prints were discovered. Fortune favoured them, inasmuch as tho original intention was to transfer an old safe to the new branch, in which case the burglars would have found the old safe facing them when they opened the strongroom, but the intention was not carried out. The gang made previous attempts on other new buildings approaching completion, and the strong-room doors of tho Intercolonial Investment Co. and the New Zealand Insurance Co. recently were both tampered with. Two men were seen leaving the bank, carrying a heavy portmanteau.