INTER-STATE THIEVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1920, Page 9

INTER-STATE THIEVES.

APPARENT INTERCHANGE OF BOOTY. Sydney, March 2G. The Sydney detectives are proud of the fact that they have laid bare a system followed by a gang of clever thieves, who appear to have been working successfully for a long time between Melbourne and Sydney. Tlie.sc men specialised in goods from warehouses and shopi?. Robberies of business premises have been increasingly common during the :[iast' year, and for u, while the police seemed baffled. Warehouses would be swiftly and silently opened, and large quantities of soft goods, boots, leather, fancy goods and such-like merchandise would be removed evidently by motor vehicles, and no trace of thieves could be found.

It appears that the thieves planned to evade the police system. When such goods were sold in Melbourne, for instance, every detective and constable was on the qui vive for the appearance of similar goods in second-hand shops, or small goods of doubtful character. The goods, therefore, became very difficult to dispose of without arousing the suspicions of honest traders. Pu they devised a system of operating in both Sydney and Melbourne and vice versa. They gave some attention to Adelaide and Brisbane, but most of their work was done in the big cities, where, of course, they were much safer.

Theipolice goton their tracks eventually. ■ It appears that detectives have been quietly busy for some time at Altmry, on the border, making a careful analysis of goods passing to and fro. As a result of information thus gathered, they made a raid in Sydney on Sunday. Five detectives went out to Hondi, quickly surrounded a house, and pounced. Tlnjr nrc-n\od, within, two persons, who tliey believe ure clever criminals, and they collected £2OOO worth of silk goods, which they believe were stolen in Melbourne. Another party of detectives went to a house in another suburb, and there recovered £'2oo worth of shirts, stolen a few days .earlier from Sydney factory. It is believed I lie; t . r c all ready to go to Melbourne. suspected "thief' is a man reeenih- tu lasted on another charge and who is -suspected of being in the in-ter-State business. Other arrests are expected in Melbourne, V