I am a crook and there’s no turning back

AS HIS notoriety grew and the public were desperate for information Ramensky was besieged by reporters who were keen to interview him. One enterprising young journalist popped a note inside a matchbox and put it through the safecracker’s letterbox stating he needed to impress his new boss. Seconds later, the matchbox popped back out. A note inside said: “Too bad.” He wrote one letter, which was later published that gave his reasons for not selling his story. He wrote: “I am sorry I cannot meet with your wishes. I believe I owe you an explanation. So here it is. I am a crook, always have been, and there is no turning back. “My heart is in the game and I would not have it otherwise. “When I started to write my life story, I did so to while away some idle moments. “My intention was to have the book published when I reached 70 or after my death. “The financial reward from the book means very little to me because I know from experience that money, even big money, makes no difference to my mode of life. “The game is what matters. What chance would I have, travelling round the town on business, with my photograph blazoned on the pages of a Sunday newspaper? “The public would hasten to identify me as soon as a safe was done. And some crackpot would identify me in places I had never been. No, sir, my liberty is too precious to be lost that way. “Financially what I lose on the swings, I gain on the roundabouts. I would temper my refusal with the assurance that offers from other newspapers would get the same answer. Each man has an ambition and I fulfilled mine years ago. I cherish my career as a safeblower. In childhood days, my feet were planted on the crooked path and took firm root.

“To each one of us is allotted a niche and I have found mine. Strangely