Another Swindle.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3833, 11 April 1881, Page 2

Another Swindle.

THE RODANOW WATCH CO

Readers of our advertising columns will remember a few months ago an advertisement appearing in this paper puffing up the merits and cheapness of the watches supplied by the ftodanow Watch Company, of Boston. We received the advertisement neatly printed, and with every evidence of being bona fide, and though not accompanied by a remittance, it was inserted by us, and, indeed, by nearly every other newspaper of importance in the colony. It vow turns out that the whole affair is a 'swindle, there being uo

such Go. In -Jau. last the Boston police obtained an iukling that a swindle was at work, and on making an iuvestigation found that the swindler was a German Socialist, who rented a small room in a second-hand store. This mau was hunted up by the police, and his stock consisted of a few cheap watches which would not fetch lOdols.. at auction. Money orders and letters enclosing remittances were found, and the swindle was in full swing, though the police had discovered it early. The swindler's plan was to send advertise- i ments to newspapers remote from Boston ; and in proof of the iom fides of the firm, a copy of the Bristol Press (Connecticut), dated September 30th, 1880, was forwarded with a marked paragraph which described the Kodanow Manufacturing Company as an old established house of high standing, &c. Seeing that respec table journals at Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and other.towns were satisfied with the genuineness of the order, the advertisement was inserted. If any persons in this district who have ordered watches from this bogus firm at Boston will communicate with the police of that town they will probably be able to recover any remittance of money. The swindle was pounced on so early by the Boston police that there could hardly be time for .New Zealand orders to reach the fellow's hands. -He was in custody some time in January as nearly as we can ascertain. Any order for watches posted since December from this district will now be in the care of the police at Boston, and can be recovered.