The Patterson gang

The Patterson gang is a three-person criminal gang which executed a number of clever robberies in London during the time of the events in Mr Eastwood's Adventure. The real names of the gang members were not given but the trio comprised a big fair man, a short dark man and a pretty young girl who had been born in Hampstead. The woman was typically used as a decoy while the two men executed the actual robbery.

A typical modus operandi of the gang is seen in how they succeeded in robbing a valuable collection of siverware and enamel ware from the house of writer Anthony Eastwood right under his nose, and while he was still at home. The woman decoy, posing as "Carmen" called Eastwood (an ostensible case of mistaken identity and a wrong phone number). She told Eastwood she was in danger and asked to meet him in a private room rented from a second-hand glassware shop. After Eastwood had gone there, two "policemen" Detective-Inspector Verrall and Detective-Sergeant Carter arrive to arrest Eastwood. They claim he is a person named Conrad Fleckman who is wanted for murder. Verrall and Carter play the good cop/bad cop strategy on Eastwood. Eastwood protests that he is not Fleckman. Carter is sceptical but Verrall appears to be sympathetic. Encouraged by this, Eastwood offers to take the two "policemen" to his house where he can show them documents to prove his identity.

At his house, Eastwood shows some documents and this appears to satisfy Verrall. But he says they still need to do a proper search just in case Eastwood and Fleckman are one and the same person. Encouraged by Verrall's friendliness, Eastwood suggests that Verrall and he withdraw to another room and have some whiskeys while Carter do the search. In another room, Eastwood asks what the background to his arrest is. Verrall, pretending to be reluctant, proceeds to tell him the the story of Anna Rosenburg, the murder victim. This tale engrosses Eastwood but Verrall leaves the plot hanging at the most interesting part and suddenly has to go out when he hears a phone ring, saying that must be his chief.

When Eastwood finally emerges from the room, he finds most of the valuables in his house have disappeared. While Verrall was distracting him with the story, Carter was outside packing everything into boxes. He even enlisted the help of the porter Rogers to help him. After Verrall had left Eastwood for the phone call, he and Carter had taken the boxes, loaded them into a vehicle and had driven away.