A "PLANT" UNEARTHED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 102, 23 September 1914, Page 6

A "PLANT" UNEARTHED.

SEQUEL TO GISBOUNK 13URGLAHY CASK

IA conglomeration of tarnished and more or less weather-exposed jewellery, spread out in a careless heap upon a ' sack, together with mother lieap thrown haphazard into an old rusty biscuit tin, formed an object of considerable attention in Gisborne the other day. This strange and unusual display -was on exhibition in the shop window of Mr. 11. J. Orieve's jewellery ■ premises, Gladstone road, and constituted a conclusive and sensational sequel to the series of three burglary cases that I have lately occupied tile attention of the I Supreme Court in Gisborne. j Air. Grieve's premises wcro entered ) from the workshop window in llio courtyard at the back on the night of June 12 last, when his show case window ] was absolutely stripped of liis valuable stock of jewellery, only a few articles being missed. The affair, at the time, I was shrouded in complete mystery, and ] so effectively was the job done that ■ the, polico for a time were baffled. The subsequent developments in the robbery, I the arrest of three men on suspicion, and I the Court proceedings will all be familiar. The responsibility for the burglary, to sum up the story, was by a jury, placed upon the shoulders of li man named Charles Henry Xewton, alias Murray, who was accordingly sentenced to two years' imprisonment and declin ed an habitual criminal. It is now only necessary to record how the jewe.iery, which Mr. Grieve estimated to be of a 1 total value of between 1 GOO and £I7OO, came to be recovered. It appears that after the Court proceedings, the prisoner decided to disclose where the booty had been planted. As a result, the first plant, representing about £101) wort hj, was recovered by Mr. Grieve, accompanied by Detective MeLeod, about 0 o'clock one evening. The lucky find was discovered underneath an iron shed abutting the western end of Disraeli street, and, incidentally, about opposite to the place where the empty jewellery pads and cases, tied up in the canvas cover from the shop, were found a few days after the robbery, just over the fence of the Childevs road reserve. The shed in question abuts oil to the main road, and the ''plant" was located underneath, down one side. The jewelbuy was simply scattered underneath, within a hand's reach. In fact, one of the rings iv;ij actually picked up on the grass alongside. No attempt had apparent];, been made to destroy identiliI cation, as the selling tags were still attached. A few of the brooches, etc., had nut been detached from the pads, and the hitler were much weathered. Without going down on one's hands and knees, the jewellery would not have been neen.

Tlin next morning, armed with further information disclosed by the prisoner, the balance of the "bag" was unearthed. Directed to the paddock at the seaward end of Disraeli street, search was nude amongst the vaupo. Taking a line, from the end of a fence, a wick carelessly thrown down in the raiipo, was picked up containing the balance of the, missing articles, probably close on £ISOO worLh.

Naturally Mr. (IrioYc was quite overwhelmed with congratulations upon liir siK-ccsAj'nl reeovcryof tho jewel-l-rw The happy soqiuil I'ully vindicates the of the jury in the case.— l'overty Hay Herald.