DARING LADDER BURGLARS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3693, 30 November 1912, Page 10

DARING LADDER BURGLARS.

FAMILIES SCREWED INTO THEIR HOUSES.

Major Ottway Mayne, Chief ConI stable of Buckinghamshire, has issued ] a warning to all owners of large houses ; in that county against the depredations of ladder burglars. ; 'The ladder burglars, it is stated in the warning, chiefly operate between j the hours of seven and ten in the * evening, when the occupiers of the ; houses and their families are at dinner : or else assembled together in one or two downstairs rooms, playing cards: i and billiards. | Remarkable methods are employed jby the burglars. The first thing they I do is to wedge or screw up the front | arid back doors. They also carefully j secure any French windows, so that ! they cannot be opened from inside, j Their next proceeding is to lay wires J or string across the lawns and paths, j They then obtain a ladder, lean it : against a bedroom window, climb it, i lock the door on the inside, and ran- ; sack the room at their leisure, j If the burglars’ movements happen , to be heard, the occupants of the house

naturally rush to the bedroom door, only to find it locked. They next probably try to reach the garden, burfind that all means of exit have been, carefullv barred.

I By the time they have managed to break open a door or get out through. : one of the windows, the burglars have escaped from the room, descended the ladder, and are rapidly disappearing in the darkness.

Attempts at- pursuit- have on several occasions had unpleasant consequences, for, in rushing across the dark lawns and along tree-shadowed paths, the pursuers have tripped over the carefully prepared wires and strings, and been thrown heavily to the ground. Major Otway Mayne’s warning recommends houseowners to guard against burglaries of this description by sending a manservant round ills grounds from time to time during the evening.

A resident of Great Misseiiden, where a dozen of the warnings have been issued, said that if -the ladder burglars arrived they would be met by something more unconventional than a manservant.

“We have two Browning pistols in the house.” he said, “and several of us are expert shots. Further, I and many of my friends in the neighborhod are now allowing our dogs to run loose •in the grounds until bedtime. On the whole, I should advise the ladder burglars to keep away from the neighborhood of Great Missenden.”