In 1949 Clive Henry Baker, a 19 year old housebreaker developed a most ingenious form of disguise for his vehicle & for himself. On February 28, 1949 at Coorparoo, a wireless set was stolen whilst the occupants of the house were asleep. On March 2, a Mayne residence was relieved of a quantity of kitchen cutlery. On March 4, an Ipswich house was entered late at night & personal property valued at £50 was stolen. Five days later at Toowoomba, a jeweler’s shop was entered about midnight where a fully-loaded revolver & stock valued at £180 was stolen. A month later on April 9 a dwelling at Annerley was robbed of £117 in clothing & other personal property.
Detective Sergeant 2/c Roy Stower whose house was burgled by Baker on the night of April 16, 1949
On the April 16, Baker made an error of judgment that was to lead to his downfall. He broke into & entered the Ashgrove home of Detective 2/c Roy Stower of the Brisbane CIB, whilst he & his family were at a picture theatre 200 hundred yards away. When the Stower family returned home the place was in disorder & property valued at £140 was missing. A search of the house & environs revealed no fingerprints, but some identifiable small car tyre tracks were found outside. Detective Stower & his CIB colleagues were now on the case in earnest. All the robberies had the same modus operandi & in some case a navy blue coloured car was seen in the locality of the crimes.
On April 23 another robbery was attempted at Camp Hill but the responding police officer frightened the robber away who left with £10 of jewellery via a navy blue touring car. A large quantity of clothing & personal effects was packed in suitcases ready for removal. The tire tracks outside the Camp Hill home matched those found at the home of Detective Stower. On April 28 Baker struck again in Morningside where he gained entry to a house by pulling a piece of lattice from a rear door & then stealing property worth £50. By this time there was active patrolling of Brisbane streets looking for the thief & his navy blue car.
Late at night on April 30, Detective Stower & another officer were patrolling the streets when they saw a small, navy blue English touring car & forced it to stop. The driver went for his fully loaded revolver but was held & relieved of the weapon. The back of the car was full of property just stolen from a house in Seven Hills. The two police officers noticed something peculiar about the appearance of the Triumph touring car & found that it was painted a cream colour, but had been disguised by covering the hood & body with navy-blue cloth.
By night, when carrying out robberies Baker drove the disguised car with the registration number Q.378-882 & by day he drove removed the cloth to reveal the cream car with number Q.436-708.
Clive Henry Baker mug shot, 1949
Close examination of Baker’s face showed that his naturally blonde hair had been darkened with graphite, his face & forehead smeared with suntan cream. Had he been seen quite closely at night when his face & hair were disguised, it is almost certain that in Baker’s natural form he would not have been identified in a line-up.
Clive Henry Baker freely admitted to his crimes and to dispensing the stolen property in NSW. His downfall was a gambling habit & he was almost penniless when arrested. He was tried for 8 charges of breaking, entering & stealing at the Brisbane Supreme Court June 26, 1949.
Baker was sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour but was released under section 656 of the criminal code after serving 6 months and upon entering into a £50 good behaviour bond. He was discharged from prison on December 26, 1949.
Side view of disguised Triumph Tourer with its navy blue cloth covering, outside old CIB Headquarters, George Street, Brisbane. Image PM0373e courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum
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Rear view of disguised English Triumph Tourer complete with fake registration number, outside old CIB Headquarters, George Street, Brisbane, 1949
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View of the Triumph Tourer, with its navy-blue cloth removed exposing the original cream paint work, outside old CIB Headquarters, George Street, Brisbane, 1949
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Close up rear view of Triumph Tourer showing the fake registration plate (378-882) and genuine registration plate number (Q.436-708)
This article was written by Museum Curator Lisa Jones (originally posted in 2011) from the best resources available within the Police Museum collections.
The Police Museum is open from 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb – Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.
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‘FROM THE VAULT Revisited- An ingenious disguise, 1949’ by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode