CLEVER THIEVES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2628, 23 August 1881, Page 2

CLEVER THIEVES.

In a cleverly written article on the subject of “ Thieving as a profession ” a contributor to a Home contempory (Pan), relates the following instance of misdirected energy and enterprise ;

“ Patience is a virtue which, in the practice of thieving as a profession, is highly valued. It is also an absolute necessity in the successful conduct of serious affairs. Take as an example the netting of a certain £20,000, recently made in this way. A certain small company of professional, called by (heir enemies, the police, ‘ a gang ’ (though, by the way, the police are not always enemies), purchased one of the largest iron safes procurable for money in London. They shipped it to the Cape of Good Hope. Two of the company, nr gang, followed it. At Cape Town they bad it sold by auction. It was purchased for the diamond fields. Nobody would buy snob a safe as that unless he had something valuable to put into it. The original investors followed the safe. One morning when the purchaser opened it the £20,000 worth of properly which be bad deposited there had gone. The safe bad not been broken open. The thieves had. made duplicate keys to fit it before they bad put if wp for sale by auction.