Charles Goodey was a famous thief well known to 
the police. He had often been arrested but had 
never been sent to prison because it had been 
impossible to prove anything. Nevertheless, the 
police watched him closely, waiting for him to 
make a mistake. When three large expensive rubies 
were stolen the police inevitably suspected Goodey. 
He had recently disappeared and they did not know 
where he was, so a big search was started.
Goodey was soon seen in London and the area was 
surrounded. He tried to escape but he was eventually 
captured and sent to prison for twenty years. But 
only one of the rubies was found. The police then 
tried to find out where he had gone while they were 
searching for him. They managed to establish his 
movements on the day he was captured and they found 
that he had visited a pottery. There he had marked 
a clay cat with an "X" and had told the owner to keep 
it for him. By mistake that cat, along with hundreds 
of identical ones, was exported to America.
