WAREHOUSE ROBBERIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1920, Page 9

WAREHOUSE ROBBERIES.

EPIDEMIC IN SYDNEY. Sydney, June 23. The gang of inter-State thieves which has devoted a great deal of attention to Melbourne warehouses in past months, carrying off valuable materials like silks, leather, fine cotton goods, and disposing of them in other States, has apparently transferred its affections to Sydney, Police headquarters in Sydney consider that the recent raids on mercers' and tailors' shops in the city are the work of an organised gang, and that the goods 'are being sent to other parts of Australia. Within the present month the following large stores have been robbed: — Sweet Brothers, Newtown, mercery worth £1500; Bon Marche Stores, George Street, cotton goods worth £1000; Supply Stores, Pitt Street, furs and cloths worth £600; Lesle Bakhas, King Street, drapery worth £200; T. and C. Riley, Castlereagh Street, drapery worth £159; Thomas Perry, Parramatta, tweeds and suits worth £400; Rubenstein, Hunter Street, tweeds worth £1000; Robert Blackwell, George Street, suitings worth £GOO* ( £2OO worth afterwards found abandoned in a near-by churchyard): Schroeder, Regent Street, cigars worth and a host of smaller'robberies. Where the many thousands of pounds' worth of stolen property goes to is a mystery. The police say there arc large receivers operating in the city, and the stuff is disposed of in Melbourne and Brisbane, and stolen goods are sent across here, in exchange, for disposal. It is reported that business people are becoming very nervous. In very many instances, a few neighboring shopkeepers are combining to employ an armed watchman to constantly watch their premises at night. It seems the only thing to do. The police declare that there is so marked a crime-wave just now that they cannot guard the city adequately against thieves during the dark hours.