BURGLARY BY PANTECHNICON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 16, 12 February 1909, Page 4

BURGLARY BY PANTECHNICON.

Burglary by pantechnicon (the nami given to a large covered renioving-van) has come into vogue again in England. The latest exploit of the kind of which we have word wa.s particularly cruel The rooms of the Ladies' Work Society. which - provides work for ladies in distressed circumstances, were entered and goods to the value of .£IOOO taken. The burglars seem to have made a leisurely examination of the goods and to have taken only the best. Quantities of valuable underclothing, bedspreads, curtains, and other articles, many of them beautifully worked by highly-skilled' hands. were taken, so that the burglars .must have had some sort of vehicle in waiting. In the kitchen were found the remains of a supper and a pack of cards, which show that burglary may be quite a comfortable profession. The pathos of the situation could hardly be exaggerated. Some of the work stolen represented the entire wealth of its pro dueers. who had spent weeks, and it' some eases, months, on it. A police off! jeer told a journalist that it is very diffi vnlt to prevent this kind of theft. Not ' long ago a Peckham 'family on returning [■from the seaside found that everything I in the house, down to the linoleum, had been removed. Enquiry showed that the burglary had been done in broad daylight, and no one had thought that there was- anything wrong. At Wimbledon thieves went further, stealing house a 1 •well as furniture. The house was sob' to be broken up. and when the ownercame back from Switzerland tliev found a vacant pint of land where their hoin' had been. The famous Wilson Barred was victimised in this way. The dav j after he started on a tnnr. six pantechnicons and twenty men .turned up a' bis house in Highhurr and leisure'strinried thp place from attic to base , Tn«it. Not no iTtiele was recovered. "Th» onlv precaution flint vm can take nirqinst. eases of this kind is to infoi-ir •the police and neighbors of tout mov> wonts, otherwise you cannot expect tV •public to take the responsibility of in . terferenee." I