The substantial number of cases of housebreaking and burglary in the western district, and the fact that there are indications that some at least of the offences have been committed by one and the same person, has led to the issue by the police of a notice to which we would draw the attention readers who are at all careful about preserving their household goods and valuables.
While the following list does not by any means exhaust the number of cases of housebreaking and burglary in the Settlement for the present month—it does not include those occurring in other districts than the west and refers only yo foreigners' houses, or foreign houses occupied by Chinese—it tends to show that the necessity for taking adequate precautions is very real indeed, for in the district beyond the Race Course no fewer than 11 cases are reported, in some of which the criminals managed to get away with goods of a considerable value. The cases thoroughfares in which they occurred, and the dates are appended: Jan.
Housebreaking Medhurst Rd. 1 Burglary ark Rd.
Wongkashaw Gdns. 2 Mousebreaking Medhurst Rd. 3 Burglary Weihaiwei Rd.
Wongkashaw Gdns. 14 Bubblingwell Rd. 16 Avenue 20 Yates Rd. a With these facts in mind probably readers will appreciate the significance of the warning printed belows to Your Hours.
The Police issue a warning that an unidentified burglar is active in the Western District just now. He enters houses through a veranda window. One method is to open the outer shutters by removing a slat so that an arm can be inserted and the bolts pulled, and then cut a whole pane of glass out of the window. Another method, when the shutters cannot be opened because the space between them and the window is too small for the arm to be inserted, is to remove a shutter slat, cut out a piece of window glass, insert the arm, turn the knob and so open the window.
In cases where entry has been effected in one of these ways it is almost always found by the Police that one of the bolts, either on the window or the door, has been left unfastened when the house w: s shut up for the night. This is due to the carelessness of the servant who has not shot the bolt into its socket, or of the householder who has not had the fastenings kept in proper repair.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.