A Daring Weston Safe Robbery

The following transcription, made by Mélissa Martin for the Weston History and Heritage website, was taken from The Kurri  Kurri / Weston Pioneering Days No.4, by Brian J. Andrews for the Coalfields Heritage Centre . Dec., 1999, p.133:

The Aberdare Hotel was the scene of a daring burglary at about three o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, April 17, 1906. About £2 was taken from the cash register, and the safe containing £75 in notes, gold and silver, in addition to valuable papers, was dragged outside, where it was blown open with explosives.

The burglars were professionals, and had apparently used a skeleton key to unlock the double doors behind the bar, as they were found unlocked in the morning, as was a small side door, with no sign of forced entry anywhere to be found.

The publican, Mr A.C. Jewell had retired the previous evening at 11.30 p.m., leaving the hotel securely locked, as was his custom, he left the cash register unlocked, so that if anyone should interfere with it, or attempt to steal any cash, they would not damage it. However, he was not in the habit of leaving much loose cash in the register.

At about 3.05 a.m. in the morning, he was awakened by the sound of a large explosion, but although he thought it strange, he did not attach much importance to it, as he had heard a similar noise the previous Sunday night. During Monday, Mr Jewell remarked on the explosion he had heard, and a customer even suggested that it might have been in connection with the shaft sinking at nearby Neath, the Wickham and Bullock Island Company's property. He agreed, feeling the explosion was in the distance and could have been at Neath.

Following the Tuesday morning explosion, which sounded much closer, Mr Jewell got out of bed and went to the balcony, but saw nothing. However, when his servant got up at 6 a.m. that morning to open the bar, she found that the money had been taken from the cash register. The girl immediately told Mrs Jewell, who then informed her husband of what had happened.

When the girl first visited the bar she failed to notice that the safe was missing.

Mr Jewell and his wife then examined the hotel, finding that a small door leading to the bar from the passage had been opened. The door in question opened in halves, the top half was still locked, with only the bottom part having been interfered with.

Going outside he was shocked to discover his safe in some bushes on the other side of the road, only about 30 yards from the front of the hotel. The door of the safe was blown completely out and was found 12 yards away, with its locks and other parts scattered in all directions.

The safe weighed about 4 cwt (200 kg), and had been partly dragged to where it had been found, as there were marks on the ground in places. At least two men would have been needed to carry the safe.

The fact it was blown open so close to the hotel suggested that not more than two were involved, and were compelled, on account its weight, to blow it so close at hand.

Mr Jewell speedily informed Constable Drew, of Weston, who, through Sergeant Snushall, of Kurri Kurri, communicated with Sub-Inspector Sykes, in Maitland.

Mr Jewell felt that the noise he heard on the Sunday night had been made simply to mislead him, so that he would take little or no notice of it when repeated.

There were a number of footprints in the sand near the hotel, and the wheel tracks of a sulky, which indicated that the escape vehicle turned around, near the hotel.

The police were baffled, as this sort of crime was new to the coalfields, but still they continued their inquiries, but no new evidence was obtained. In addition to the Weston and Kurri Kurri police, Sub-Inspector Sykes and Senior-Constable Dolman, of Maitland, and Sergeant Brown, of Newcastle, were all working n the case.

Naturally, as news of the burglary spread rapidly that morning, it not only caused great excitement in Weston, but provided the chief topic of conversation and rumours for days to come.

One theory put forward was that one thief must have hidden himself inside the hotel before closing time, and therefore was able to unbolt the doors.

Mr Jewell, knew of no person or persons that held any grudges against him, but was of the opinion that the burglars knew the place fairly well. Still, a knowledge of location of the safe, and how to get to it, would have been easy to find out.

Curiosity brought large numbers of spectators to view the shattered safe, which had been allowed to remain near the spot where it had been blown up by the burglars.

The noise of the explosion on the previous Sunday night was heard by several residents of Weston, and even by persons residing at Kurri Kurri, causing much speculation but apparently no concern.

Having been completely cleaned out of cash, Mr Jewell was able to open the Aberdare Hotel for business as usual that morning, £10 in change having been charitably lent to him by Mr Fogarty, the local Weston butcher.

The hotel did a roaring trade that day, being filled all day with interested visitors, officials, and pressmen.

As time went by nothing further was ever reported of the case, which remains unsolved to this day.

[Transcribed for the Weston History and Heritage website by Mélissa Martin]