AUDACIOUS THIEVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 August 1921, Page 10

AUDACIOUS THIEVES.

TRICKS WORKED ON SYDNEY PEOPLE. Sydney, July 19. The head of a prosperous suburban family, one morning not long ago, received a letter. 'lt contained four tickets to a Sydney theatre, and a note —“Guess who sent these?” The family guessed hard, but when the night for which the tickets were issued arrived, the identity o-f the ffiver had not been discovered. But it was decided, of course, to use the tickets. When, several hours later, the family Returned from a delgihtful entertainment, they found that, in their absence, the house had been thoroughly ransacked. Clothing, silverware, linen, pictures—everything negotiable— had vanished. And on the dining-room table was a pleasant little note—“ Guess who did this?”

A city man got married and furnished, with elaboration and taste, a‘charming little bungalow in a. waterside suburb. The house remained locked up while the couple were away on honeymoon. One day a couple of vans stopped before the house and three men began to load the furniture into the vans. No one interfered with them. That is a peculiarity of Sydney life—“stickybeak” neighbors are not encouraged. When the married couple came back home they found 99 per cent, of their new furniture missing, and it was never traced.

A man who was once a successful auctioneer in Invercargill, and is now a resident of Sydney, bought a cabinet gramaphone for £4O the other day. put it in the back of his car and left it there while he and his wife went into a big departmental store. When they came back the big talking machine, with various parcels, had vanished, and were never seen again.

’Stories such as these appear in the Sydney newspapers almost every day. The police have to some extent broken up the crime wave, but the snoaK thieves are always with us, and they seem to be developing greater ingenuity and audacity.