Trapped by the police the other "When the First Special District day while trying to extort $40,000 Court opens this morning for its from Hsu Ling-shan, general man-regular sessions. an interesting case ager of a hosiery firm et 81 Penang Road, Chen Yi-fee faced the First will be heard. involving a gang of juvenile pickpockets and their teacher.
Special District Court yesterday. He confessed to having written extortion This gang, responsible for innumerable cases of pocket picking among foreign-letters to Hsu but judgment was re-ers as well as Chinese, was first served. Chen was remanded in cus-doomed to be smashed on May 19. tody. Hsu received two extortion when detectives from Wayside station letters demanding the big sum of money and was ordered to send the arrested one of the youngsters after he had been caught red-handed at the money to a specified place near Chusan Road market where he was North Honan Road. Police detectives in disguise went to the place and irving to pick the pocket of a Ger-arrested Chen easily. man-Jewish refugee.
The youthful criminals were said Another extortioner also confessed to have worked principally in over-to his crime in the same court yes-crowded places. such as the market terday. He is Wang Wu-sheng, a, and near the cinemas. The profits. loafer who failed to extort money if they may be thus termed. were from one Tseng Nan-fang at 824 divided between the two pickpockets, Boone Road on Tuesday. He detually working on a case, and their manded money under threat of death "sion san" (teacher). but a quick alarm brought the police to the scene and he was arrested.
It was this man that the police made He confessed before the judge that their aim to catch in order to smash under various pretexts he had tried the gang. The first arrested man. extortion several times. Judgment "brought to the station for questioning. was also reserved and Wang was re-was at first reluctant in giving away manded in custody. Many calling his teacher. but implicated other cards were found in his possession members of the gang. and these were being studied by the Acting on information obtained police. from the youthful criminal. detectives visited several Chinese houses in the eastern district north of the Soochow Creek and arrested five more pickpockets. Their ages ranged from, Bandits Foiled in Bid thirteen to eighteen. Some of them were more talkative and it was from To Rob Hotel Safe hem that detectives learned where they could find the master mind be-An attempt to rob the safe of the hind the criminal activities of the Oriental Hotel on the first floor of gang.
Sincere's in Nanking Road was foiled when one of the inmates raised an Master-Mind alarm that forced the robbers to The man was Vu Yuen-sung and he was the seventh person to be taken into custody by detectives from Wayside station. He was found to have had no criminal record and at first vehemently denied having had any part in the crimes committed by the gang. The confessions of other members of the syndicate, however. left no doubt as to his participation in the activities.
The arrest of three more pickpockets went further to prove the guilt of the man and it is understood that the "teacher" will be charged with instigation when he faces court this morning. seek safety in flight. The crime was staged by two men. one of them armed with a pistol, at about 2.10 p.m. yesterday when they entered the office and held up the assistants.
While the armed man held the victims covered with his pistol, the other pulled out pieces of cord from his pocket and bound the men. The robbers then tried to force their victims to reveal where the key was.
One of the office assistants, however, shouted for help and the robbers decamped without stealing anything and without firing a single shot. Both men spoke Shanghai dialect,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.