The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-10-25
DARING BURGLARIES
INGENIOUS DEVICES RESoRTED TO
BY BANK THIEVES.

kong Bank vaults - Extensive and
Successful Tunneiing Operations.
In the whole catalogue of daring
bank robberies there is no story more
amazing than that of the robbery at
The Hongkong branch of the Bank of
Western India, for not only did the
case display the most astonishing dar
ing, skill and patience on the part of
the robbers, but their success has
never been equaled by other bank
breakers.
1t was generally understood that the
safes and vaults of the Western bank
were about the strongest ever built,
this, decided to attack the bank in a
way they believed the builders had
never anticipated, and therefore not
provided for. They rented Il house on
the opposite side of the street and set
tied down to live like simple minded
gentlemen.
Some three months later the manager
of the bank had occasion to visit the
vaults, and, to his utter amaZement
and CONSERVATION, he discovered that
the principal safe, which Il day or two
before had contained upward of
100000 in bullion and other valuables,
had been emptied of everything. 1t
did not take long to throw the respon-
oil 70, ,igli Il, IN
the simple minded gentlemen over the
way, but when Il visit was paid to their
abode it was found that they, too, had
disappeared.
While living quietly and respectfully,
evincng no INCLINATION to hide them
selves, but showing their faces fire.
quently at the windows and walking
in the streets like the most honest folk,
the robbers constructed a tunnel con
Meeting the basement of their domicile
with the vaults of the bank. To ac-
complish this they dug shaft down
TO a sufficient depth TO enable them to
tunnel under the road without being
heard by passengers or rishing a col
lapse of the earth and they cut an
upward shaft, giving them access to
the vaults, where, one day when the
bank was closed and they knew the
safes were loaded with yaluables, they
quietly broke in and cleared away
everything worth taking.
One can easily appreciate the cour-
age and patience of these men. They
had to cut tunnel between eighty
and ninety feet long, sufficiently high
and wide to allow the passage of two
men carrying heavy chest; they had
20 dispose of the immense amount of
earth displaced in cutting the tunnel
without any one knowing, and after
twelve weeks incessant labor in cut
ting the tunnel they had yet to make
way through the concrete floor of the
bank and break into safe of eXcep
tional strength. The cutting of the
upward shaft under the bank partic-
ularly must have been an anxious task
for the robbers, since ut any moment
they might have betrayed themselves
to some on2 above, and it speaks vol
y
labored that no one suspected them or
what was happening until they had
made their escape with 100000 worth
of valuables, the carrying away of
which, apart from anything else, must
have been far from Il simple matter.
An equally surprising feat was per
formed by the thieves who stole f40,
600 worth of diamonds from Kimber-
ley bank some years ago. While the
tunnel in this case was only about
twenty feet long, owing t" the fact
that the thieves were able to avail
themselves Of big main drain to ap-
proach the bank secretly, other difficult
ties that had to be overcome were much
more formidable than in the Hongkong
case.
The safe in which the diamonds were
deposited was one of suc'aremarkable
strength that before enterNig OH their
enterprise the thieves evidently decid-
ed it would be hopeless to attempt to
break into it at the sides or door, as .
the work might occupy too much time,
and that it would be necessary for
them to attack it at the back. which,
being built into a wall, they could work
upon after bank hours, perhaps for
days togethCv If necessary. And this
decision was arrived at despite their
knowledge that the wall into which the
safe was built was three feet thick and
built of solid granite.
They started operations from the
drain running down below the street on
which the bank fronted by digging a
tunnel twenty feet long on level with
the banks vaults. This tunnel, cut
through exceedingly difficult ground,
opened on the foundations of the build
ing, which were, on the one hand, too
deep to be passed under, and, on the
other hand, so thick and solid = four
feet of the strongest masonry that
hinety-nine men out of hundred would
have abandoSed the enterprise if only
because of the risk of cutting a passage
through such a wall beneath the feet
Of an office full of clerks and ever pass
ing pedestrians in the street But the
thieves had fortune In diamonds in
view and were men not easily fright