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had very little hair which he constantly swept back over the bald patch at the crown of his head. The teeth that he had left, which were few, had rarely seen a tooth brush since he had been booted out of Her Majesties armed forces after only serving two years of a nine year contract with the army.
    The reason for his dismissal was for breaking the nose of an officer with the butt of his rifle whilst on an exercise. He served three months in a military prison before being dishonourably discharged.
    He met the other motley bunch when he was given eighteen months for causing an affray outside a nightclub and for carrying a dangerous weapon, namely a six inch bladed flick knife.
    Pete was the youngest member of the group at twenty eight and was mainly used as lookout while the others were looting the inside of the chosen premises. The oldest member of the gang was Roger at fifty two.
    Tonight the gang had planned to break into a new field of robbery to what they had been accustomed to. House burglaries were their usual occupation. Now they were going to try their hand at knocking off a warehouse on an industrial estate in the city. Roger’s ‘fence’ had told him that the warehouse would be home to boxes of wines and spirits that were waiting distribution. As he was told they would be there for a couple of weeks he felt this job could wait. The job he had in mind needed to be done sooner rather than later.
    “Now we’re all here I want to put a proposition to you all”. I know of a house where the occupants are on holiday abroad, but only until Thursday or Friday. It is close to a house we have done more recently” and if I’m not mistaken will bring better rewards than the last one we did”, Roger suggested, knowing that if it was what he wanted they would agree.
    “What about the warehouse we had planned for tonight”? Bert inquired.
    “We can still carry out the warehouse job on Sunday night, but the owners of this house could possibly be back as early as Thursday”, replied Roger.
    “Isn’t it a bit risky to go back to the same area so soon”, Pete put in.
    “You know the saying, ‘Lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice’, no one will be expecting it, so there’s less risk of us being caught”, said Roger reassuringly.
    So they huddled around the spread out map and drew up their plan of action. They knew the layout of the house as it was of a similar design as the house they had broken into on that road a few days before.
    The intention was to cut through the wire again and enter from the back. Pete would take on the role of watchman as before. This job would have to be done much quicker than the other house in this street, so only small items were to be selected.
    To make a quick get away Roger nominated Bert and Mick to search upstairs whilst he would sweep through the downstairs. If the back door was of the same design as the other house they would cut through the double glazing If not they would jemmy it. This would keep the noise down to a minimum.
    With all the detail completed they arranged to meet at 10pm. This would allow for final checks on the equipment. Roger held great store in having everything just so, which included timing and the tools for the job. He was convinced that this was partly the reason for them not being caught.
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    The clock on Mick’s mantelpiece showed 9.45pm. It had been dark now for about an hour. He would make his way down stairs to the garage where he would pick up the glass cutter and the two suction pads he would need to remove the back door glass so as not to shatter it.
    He was hoping that the door would have a top and bottom panel and that this meant he need only cut the bottom part which would allow them to crawl through.
    To make detection more difficult, they would meet in different parts of the village with each job they did. On this occasion they had arranged to meet in the car park of the Royal Oak.
    Bert and Pete arrived in their old