"The lads visited one posh house in Chelsea during New Year's Eve 1947 while the owners were dressed up to the nines at the Chelsea Arts Ball at the Royal Albert Hall and got a real surprise," the retired writer for the East London Pioneer, who still has the notebook from his early 1960s interview with Jimmy Sowerbutt, said. "The storeroom at the back was chock-a-block with electric fires. Packed to the ceiling. They'd had a cold spell already and, as Jimmy said, the owner must have bought up an entire run from a factory ready to triple the price if there was another cold spell which, of course, came about.
"They didn't have the space in the lorry to take them that night. They put back the valuables so there was no trace of a break-in and scarpered. Jimmy put Nero on duty to watch the place and a couple of days later when the owners were out socialising again, the lads cleared the lot.
"In the end, Jimmy gave most of the fires away to local families when the Big Cold came later in January. Probably saved a few lives. He sold a few to the high and mighty in the West. He got 10 times the shop price, he said."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA
"They didn't have the space in the lorry to take them that night. They put back the valuables so there was no trace of a break-in and scarpered. Jimmy put Nero on duty to watch the place and a couple of days later when the owners were out socialising again, the lads cleared the lot.
"In the end, Jimmy gave most of the fires away to local families when the Big Cold came later in January. Probably saved a few lives. He sold a few to the high and mighty in the West. He got 10 times the shop price, he said."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Lemon-Surrender-1940-ebook/dp/B008USR7FA
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