The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-08 00:00:00

The Burglary in Lombard-street.

The robbery of bullion, bank notes, bills of exchange, and
other valuable securities, on the premises of Messrs Bawl,
in Lombard-street, is still as much a mystery as it was at
first. None of the stolen treasure has been traced, and the
thieves are still at large. Some of the more experienced of
the City detective police have been engaged in the matter
during the last three days, but with little or no result. First
of all, there is nothing to show conclusively how the thieves
got into the premises; there were no marks of violence
found on the outside of either the window shutters or street
door, and the irresistible conclusion is that the thieves were
inside the house before it was closed for the night either on
the evening of Saturday or Sunday. Mr Baum, the senior
partner in the firm, a gentleman of advanced age, was seen
by a police-constable on duty to leave the premises on Sa-
turday evening, in a c .b, about 7 o'clock, and one of his
two sons who assist him in the business did not leave for
the night until two hours afterwards. IL is said the niece
of the housekeeper and her husband, a working man, went
to the theatre on Saturday evening and returned at half-
past 11. The housekeeper, who with them lives in the top
story, did not leave the house during their absence, and on
their return nothing occurred as they passed upstairs to
attract their attent'on except that the dog barked, which
was unusual. The dog, though belonging to Messrs.
Baum, was not shut up in their premises at night,
but had the run of the lobbies and staircases of the
whole house, which is five stories in height. The strong-
room which enclosed the iron safe is a place about eight
feet by six feet, under ground, with an arched roof, and
the hole which was cut in the brick wall, and by which the
thieves effected an entrance to the room, was immediately
over the iron safe, showing that they NI ell knew its exact
rosition in the room. Had the hole been cut six or eight
inches lower down in the wall than it was, the time spent in
cutting it would have been lost, for in that case the iron safe
would have been immediately behind, and the aperture
would not have been large enough to admit a person to enter
the room by that way. Locksmiths, who have carefully ex-
amined the sate since the robbery, are of opinion that access
was had to it either by unlocking the door, or by its having
been left unlocked inadvertently before the thieves entered
the strong-room. Having succeeded in opening the door of
the safe, it remains to be explained why the lock on the
inner side of it was broken to pieces, and why, supposing
the thieves got into the strong room by the hole in the wall,
and returned that way with their booty, the two locks on
the inner door of the room should itself have been wrenched
off. On a search being made in the room by the police,
some lucifer matches, two vessels containing oil, one being
an eau-de-Cologne and the other a tin bottle, a small can-
vas bag, and some iron wedges were found, besides the four
crowbars and two morticing chisels mentioned in previous
reports of the burglary. The bag is said to be similar to
some in which labouring men carry victuals. In Lombard-
street and also in a place called George-yard, running from
thence to Cornhill, and hard by the scene of the robbery,
extensive building operations are now, and have been for
some time, in progress. The two morticing chisels, when
found in the strong room, were both broken at the points,
and they had probably been used in making the hole in
wall. At all events, the crowbars present no appearance of
having been used for such a purpose, and their points are
so thick and blunt as to forbid the idea that they could
have been employed in prising open the door of the safe.
It is said that when Mr Baum, the senior partner, accom-
panied by a lad who acts as porter, first made the discovery
of the robbery on Monday morning he was so affected that
he swooned and fell to the ground, and he had hardly re-
covered when the police arrived. It is understood that
Messrs Baum have intimated their intention to increase the
reward offered by them for the discovery of the stolen pro-
property from £SCO to £7OO.