Glasgow Evening Post 22 December 1885 p. 1

THE LORGNETTE.

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Daring at all times excites admiration, so that one can scarcely help having a sort of sneaking for the individuals who committed the robbery in Sauchiehall Street on Saturday. Mr. A.E. Rennie, the well-known cycling agent, let off business for the day at two o’clock, and having occasion to visit the premises about eight hours afterwards, he then discovered that the place had been entered by thieves, a desk wrenched open, and a cash-box containing a small sum of money and cheques to the amount of £120 carried off. This had been taken from a room at the back of the shop, but it was also found that a bicycle, the only new one among a certain lot of old machines, been made part of the plunder. There is only one entrance to the premises—that from Sauchiehall Street, and they are situated next door to the Corporation Galleries, the front of which is well lighted as soon as dusk sets in. An extra staff of policemen are always on duty, too, at this part of the street, so that none but the most daring and most experienced of thieves were likely to run the almost certain risk of being detected in an act of plunder at a time when, on account of the many promenaders, it is impossible to make anything approaching to satisfactory progress on the street. But in the daring of the depredation lies its success, and I shall not be surprised to learn that the scoundrels passed with their plunder beneath the very nose of the constable whose especial duty it was to guard the premises in question.

Glasgow Evening Post 12 January 1886 p. 1

Three weeks ago I called attention to the peculiar circumstances connected with a case of house-breaking in Glasgow, and could not help having a sort of sneaking admiration for the daring of the persons who committed the robbery. On a Saturday, between two o'clock in the afternoon and ten at night, the shop of Mr. A. E. Rennie, cycling agent, Sauchiehall Street, was entered by means of false keys, and a cash-box containing cheques to the value of £120, a small sum of money, and a bicycle taken away. The curious thing was that such a depredation could be carried out successfully in a crowded thoroughfare, and in a locality where, owing to the Corporation Galleries being situate there, four policemen are on a beat extending to about a hundred yards; and I said I would not be surprised to learn that the scoundrels passed with their plunder under the very nose of the constable on duty there. In spite of all their badness, there was humour in the thieves. They had seen my paragraph, and on the following day a letter was received by Mr. Rennie, correcting certain inaccuracies in it. They also sent back the cheques, with the request that as he had left so little money in the box, the least he could do was to cash one of them and send the money to Harry Douglas, a detective in the Northern District, from whom they would get it. The bicycle was recovered in a pawn-shop in the city, and a number of persons were apprehended on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery. One of these persons was detained, and it now turns out that he was one of the gang. Last evening a clerk named Wilson, who has been previously convicted of felony, was taken into custody, or rather was given into custody by a female, as another of the gang, and he is likely to prove the person who pawned the bicycle and wrote the letter which I have referred to.


Glasgow Evening Post 25 February 1886 p. 3
THEFT BY HOUSEBREAKING.

James Spence, alias M’Gregor, and Robert Wilson were charged with theft by housebreaking. The indictment set forth that on the 18th December last the prisoners broke into the premises in Sauchiehall Street occupied by Mr. Andrew George Rennie and stole a bicycle, a cash-box containing £1 13s., and five cheques for £120 2s. 1d.
The jury found Wilson guilty as libelled, and the charge against Spence or M’Gregor was found not proven. Wilson was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude. On sentence being passed Wilson's wife, who was in the gallery, burst into tears and exclaimed, “Oh, my Bob, what am I to dae.”