DARING DIAMOND ROBBERIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 318, 3 June 1911, Page 9

DARING DIAMOND ROBBERIES.

HOW SCIENTIFIC BURGLARS HAYR BROUGHT OFF BIG COLTS. The statement made the other_ g av )j' v a West-end jeweller that a 'j a ,L u absolutely a necessity for. n w m fashton and that his <, have always over 150. „, at icef '""f pensive class" valued at tw. uZ '' ™ clever crot,k6 kncw al > MIS nßWS P<»per accounts of society weddings, « e Character and costliness of the jew<Vifi und gems given as presents, and make » tareful note of their future abidinguuvces. But the higher-grade criminal ['Xpert is content to leave the retail robbery to his less accomplished confreres. His plundering is in the wholesale way. He goes to what may be termed the fountain-head. As long as Hat ton Garden has been the headquarters of the diamond business in this country the wealthy diamond merchants have invented all" sorts of eontraptions to defy thieves. But how often has a breach been made in these scientific earthworks and entrenchments, and how frequently has the gate of the coveted Golconda been opened by clever crooks! The Houndsditch affair was on the scale of "big jobs," and the pavements of Hatton Garden could tell of many suck One of the biggest of these hauls was in 1870. when diamonds and other jewels of a value of £25,000 were stolen from the premises of Messrs. Williams j, Sons. This was a case of Saturday-to-Monday robbery, when the thieves work at their leisure. The thieves manageu to get false keys, made from moulds, whieji onened all the safes. Another very successful enterprise was in 18S1. when Hatlon Garden Post Office was the scene of a mail robbery of an unexampled character. One November day, shortly after dusk, when the work of making up the bags was just completed, someone turned the gas off at the meter, and in the confusion the thieves, who evidently knew their way about, entered by a side door behind the counter, and made straight for the registered-letter bags, which were hanging on hooks ready for dispatch. A light cart or other vehicle was waiting at the door, and into this the robbers threw their booty and quickly drove away. The bags contained diamonds, out and uncut, to the value of .00,000. The oddest thing of all was that nobody saw the carrying off of the bags, which were too bulky for one man, and that nobody observed a enrt at the door. Some arrests were made by the Continental police, but the real criminals were never discovered. Sometimes these robberies are accompanied by violence. Thus in 1883 Mr. J. Alexander, a diamond merchant in Hatton Garden, made complaint to the police that he had been shot through the right hand by a thief who had entered his office and stolen diamonds valued at some thousands of pounds. The miscreant, it was added, rushed ont of the building, jumped into a hansom, and escaped before an alarm could be triven. A year later two foreigners were inspecting precious stones at the premises of Mr. Tabak, a London diamond merchant, when they suddenly attacked him with a life-preserver, and got off with £2.000 worth of gems. A later crime of a kindred description occurred in 1894. when Mr. Spyers, a Dutch merchant, was overpowered by chloroform at Hatton Garden niul rnhrmd of diamonds and other jewels worth several thousand pounds. Tn tills instance offices had been opened by persons who cave themselves out as large purchasers for the" Continental market. Mr. Spyers caller'/ on them in the wav of business, and was promptly maltreated and deprived of his pocket-book. There wag suspicion, at the time, whether wellfounded or otherwise, that this was the work of the gang who robbed the Hatton Garden post office. In that case they took rooms next door, and had a registered letter delivered to them every day. As they came first on the postman's rounds thev knew the size of the registered-letter bag, and doubtless cot hold of other information which they subsequently put to good account.