STOLEN CARS AT £4 EACH.
GANGS WHO SET UP AS GENUINE BUSINESSES.
·FAKED NUMBERS.
THE HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1930.
MOTOR NOTES
Motorists and Pedestrians,
Few people," says The Light Car and Cyclecar, disagree
If
with a remark made. recently by An ex-convict recently released Mr. H. R. Oswald, a West London from Dartmoor revealed to a Press coroner, who said, "I do not think representative exactly how the busi-there is any need for a separate wess of stealing motor-ears is work organization of pedestrians. ed-from the actual theft of the pedestrians will only co-operate car to its reappearance, ostensibly with other road users, using due cars themselves and observing the rules of the road, more good will This man was sentenced for car-
be done than by creating bad feel- stealing. He has expert knowledge of his subject; and made his ex-ing between different sections of the
public, posure with all the fatherly brisk- ness of a foreman showing a visitor round the works.
as another car, in the sale-room.
"First of all," he said, " there's a lot of men out just stealing cars for which the gang will pay at the rate of £3 or 4 a car, These men drive the cars to some parking places or garages away from the districts where they, were stolen, ond leave them there. Then- quickly they tell the gang, and one of the gang fetchen the particular car, from where it's been left, and takes it to one of the gang's places. I'll come to them in a minute.
"This is only too true. One section of the community will not tolerate interference on the part of another section, and when it comes to a problem like safety first, con- certed action-combining the efforts of all who walk, motor cycle or drive horsed-vehicles-is the only solution. It is all, the more en- couraging, therefore, to observe that one of the conditions of member- ship of the newly formed Light Car Club is the signing of the safe driving declaration of the Road Fellowship League-s body which embraces all classes of road user and "Business" Premises.
asks them to work for the common Now, when à gang sets up in good. The signing of a declaration business, the first thing it does is of this kind is not an admission to get hold of Botas letter-heads that any one of the parties, whether used by any selling agent for a well- they travel afoot or awheel, is at known, make of ear. Then we fault, but a very praiseworthy en- meaning the gang go to any shop, deavour to show their willingness to a tobacconist's, any, or a news-associate themselves with a practical agent's, on the outskirts of London, effort to make road travel safer. and we ask can we use the shop as Good work is already being done in an accommodation address for the the cause of safety first by our business which we are shortly open larger motor bodies-in the shape of ing in that district.
rund patrols and so on-and equally good work can be done by all road users."
Right. Then we go to a printer and get the style of the letter-head copied, but with our assumed.busi- ness name and the accommodation address on the paper. We also get receipts printed with the same name and address-all very official look ing, Right. That gives us our print
ed mattér,
4
only the last two figures. It's very difficult to alter the figures-we do it with neid to soften the metal, and then hammer it fat, and then "The second step is to get a pinch the new figures in-so...we series of lock-up garages in different make the job as casy as we can. districts, or else a garage which is The numbers now will be 58793 and supposed to be a genuine business-59631, and they were the numbers but lock-ups are the best. It's to in, our letter to our man. one of those places that the stolen car is brought. Now, we're got our literature, our garages. and our stolen car. This is what happens.
Only New Car
Well, the Licensing people examine the receipts and see that the numbers we have contrived do not belong to any stolen car They ask our man where he lives. He has got an address. Where will he "As soon as the ear comes in kece the car? He gives them a and we only deal in new British local garage. Right. A week or so curs of well-known makes we take later they send him his registration its fail description, its chassis and card, and he comes back to Lon- engine number, the make, the don. He is the first owner. The model, its colour, and any other car, of course, is still at our place. distinctive marks.
"Meanwhile, one of us has gone to any large town, away from Lon- don, and taken lodgings there for a couple of weeks. We send him all particulars of the car. together with a letter on the faked paper advising him offcially that the car
Registration Cards.
"Then, after three of four weeks, he writes to the town hall where he registered the car, enclosing the registration card, and says he has sold it to Mr. So-and-So, and will they transfer the car to him. Mr. is coming, and enclosing a faked So-and-So- who is another of us- receipt for the deposit and first ingets the registration card at our stalment he's supposed to have paid rearrangel address, and he is the for it. He's the buyer of the car, second owner. Then he takes the do you see i
car to any motor anlercom-the trail all beautifully covered up-and sells it. And the gang splits the money.
Then he walks into the town hall and pats the receipt and our business letter on the counter, and says he wants to register the
car.
"One or two other points. We always mention in our letter to the Altered Numbers.
first buyer that, as he wishes to "Meanwhile, again, our mechanic regisser the car in his own county, has got busy altering the chassis it will be delivered to him under a That explains to number and the engine number, trade number. which have already been sent to the the licensing people, if necessary, police as being on a stolea car. why we, who are supposed to be We alter the numbers in this way: selling the car, have not registered suppose the chassis is 5573r andit for the buyer, an is usual
the engine 58042; well, we choose a "We have several of these faked car is never small number, say eleven, and sub-addresses, and the tract it from each so as to after registered in the same county as the
address used." (Continued on next Column.)
FIRST IN HONG KONG
1930" BRITISH MOTOR CYCLES
A Battery Danger,
Before they take up motoring
most men and women are already familiar with certain precautions they must take when attending to odd jobe about a car," writes "Focus" in The Light Uar and Cyclecar."The risk of becoming poisoned by exhaust fumes through running the engine in a cicaed garage, for instance, is widely known, while no one in his senses will look inside the petrol tank by the aid of a lighted match. It is however, not nearly so generally understood as it should be that the gases given off by a well-charged accumulator, although small in quantity, are also of a highly in- flammable nature.
Bater Motoring.
"The motor-car occupies a unique place in the circle of modern, cfficient and elaborate, machinery in that it is placed in the hands of drivers who, however well-meaning. knowledge nor the time necessary to have usually neither the mechanical make a periodic round of inspec tion, lubrication and adjustment," remarks The Motor
"When it is remembered that a locomotive is taken to the running- abods for attention after a 300-milė run and that the motor coaches and buses run by big concerns are sub- jected to vigilant and skilled atten tion, it is surprising that the aver- age private car should run as well na it does.
"This capacity for covering a big mileage before neglect becomes "An object lesson in the chemistry manifest in the shape of a break- of the ordinary type of accumulator down or accident is only too apt to is furnished by the recent experiḥ
engender a feeling of false security ence of a youthful acquaintance of
in the owner. During recent years mine, who tried to examine the lovel car makers have taken considerable trouble to reduce the work of main. of the electrolyte in his car battery after dark by the light of a naked
tenance to a minimum. Conseqüent- fame. He has described to me whatly, for a mechanically minded owner happened in the following words:-
an hour's work every 300 miles I had struck a match and un. should suffice to keep a car in good For the growing screwed one of the cell caps when running order. suddenly there was a bright fash number of motorists who wish to and a loud report just like the restrict their activities to driving crack of a rifle. The match went there are now garages throughout out and I felt a sharp stinging pain the country equipped to carry out about the eyes. I could see nothing, light maintenance work at a small and for a while thought I had gone blind."
A couple of days after the event my young friend was fortunately out of danger of losing his sight, but he was still suffering from shock."
Professor Low 'on Churlish
Complaints.
"I often think," writes Professor Low in The Motor" that we are very apt to accept the gifts of science in a churlish manner. We complain, for example, if current leaks from 's wire and prevents an engine from running with perfect smoothness at a speed of 2,000 re- velutions per minute.
"It has taken the better part of 100 years to devise a magneto and to find a material which would act as an insulator without absorbing moisture from the air or becoming brittle in use. Generations have applied themselves to the produc tion of a magnet of which the power would last, and tens of thousands of pounds have been spent in the
production of an alloy which would withstand the action of a spark.
Chemists have sought liquids which were clean, economical, and easily "convertible into mechanical energy. Yet we are ready at any moment to sheer at a motor-car"in which any one of the myriads of technical bricks has become tempor- arily displaced.
I am right in stating that bio- logists have died in order that tyres might be reliable, equally right in suggesting that as yet their main problems are untouched and that we are embryonic in our conception of an electrified world such as may in the future become accepted as a Com- monplace.
SERVICE
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cost, and such facilities are destined to grow rapidly in scope this year..
There is, therefore, no excuse lects to keep his car in good con- for the man who deliberately neg- dition, and we are certain that if
ali motorists would take this matter to heart the roads would become materially safer. Adequate equip ment of the right kind is almost equally important." The First One-Hour Outboard
Recordi,
The recognition of the first one- hour national outboard motor boat récord by the M.M.A. is announced in The Motor Boat. Mr. J. Turner, who is a keen competitor in motor trials with a Morgan, covered 32 miles 459 yds. it an average speed of 32.26 m.p.h, ôn Portsmouth Harbour. He used c 16 bh. p. Johnson engine and a 14-ft. hydroplane belonging to Viscount Kingsborough.
On Friday, February 21, Ports- mouth Harbour will be the scene of another attempt, when the Hon. motorist, will pilot & 40 mp.h. Victor Bruce, the well-known
British-built hydroplane on a six- boar endurance test.
"The Splendid Ultimate Triumph
is a resounding phrase, but it expresses the wonderful, deserved success of the "AUSTIN. SEVEN."..
Difficulties of bad roads and climate have been surmounted in an astonishing manner and the "Seven" revels in what are known as "colonial conditions."
The “ Austin Seven" is the cheapest car in the world to run.
It gives the greatest mileage per gallon of petrol and consumes very little oil.
ARRANGE FOR A TRIAL RUN
ALEX. ROSS & COMPANY (CHINA), LTD.
HEAD OFFICE:
PRINCES BUILDING.
HONG KONG.
DEPOT:
CHATER ROAD,
Phone C. 2487.
HONG KONG AND KOWLOON.
Austin
(DEFFERRED PAYMENT -AND EXCHANGE. ARRANGED)
Lockey Curbrid Lind
KOWLOON
GARAGE:
SALISBURY Road.
BUY YOUR CAR ON VALUE!
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K 1488,
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CHEVROLET
10. CROSS LANE WANGHAI
C.3193
KOWLOON
CAMERON RD,
K.1624
THE HONGKONG HOTEL GARAGE
THE PEAK
P. 208
Queen's Road Central,
Tel. C. 4759-
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