The gang realised the police were using a "dragnet tactic", and with help from the public, would probably discover the farm much sooner than had been originally anticipated. Please report any comments that break our rules. Yes, I did regret getting involved, he says. Some items from inside it, including the Monopoly set, are on display at the Thames Valley Police museum. 145 views, 9 likes, 0 loves, 1 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Damon Mitchell Photography: Leatherslade Farm at Oakley near Brill in Buckinghamshire. [12] It appeared, from interviews with the witnesses, that about 15 hooded men dressed in blue boiler suits had been involved, but little more could be gleaned. Several of the posers have been identified as members of the Thorne family, who were Smithers in-laws. After the robbery, the gang hid at Leatherslade Farm. It was only when he invited his brother-in-law over from the UK for Christmas that Scotland Yard was able to track him down and recapture him. Part of the reason for Field's prosperity was that he was not averse to giving Goody and Edwards information about what his clients had in their country houses, making them prime targets for the thieves. The robbers escaped with 2.6 million the equivalent of 46 million today. This was the big practice robbery that the South West Gang had done before the Great Train Robbery. As it happened, when the robbers, most of whom had form, realised the police were hot on their trail, they dispersed in chaos, leaving fingerprints all over the farm, on crockery, tomato sauce bottles and furniture. He visited Canada and the US as a lecturer on police matters. [38][pageneeded], Field later became a solicitor's managing clerk for John Wheater & Co. John immediately called the police hotline set up after the raid, but no action was taken so he rang again the following day. In 1960, the Post Office Investigation Branch (IB) recommended the fitting of alarms to all TPOs with HVP carriages. It was renamed by the owners who even diverted the nearby public footpath to further discourage the curious.
