WAIMATE SENSATION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10163, 18 July 1924, Page 4

WAIMATE SENSATION

ATTEMPTED BANK" Rt)BBERY.'. HOTEL SAFE ALSO BURGLED.'. (Per Press Association.) WAIMATE,: This Day. A sensation was provided by attempted robbery on-the premises of the Bank of New South Wales, and "the successful theft of £l2 from the safe of the Criterion Hotel, between three and four o'clock this morning. Some time after, three o'clock the wife of the hotel licensee, Mrs D. Coffey, heard a bottle crash'in the private bar, and endeavoured to wake her husband, who is a heavy sleeper. Then she opened the bedroom door, -but hearing no further souncFwent back to bed. When the hotel opened at 9 o'clock it was found that £l2 in silver was missing from the safe, and ' only ~ coppers; were left, but the safe had been locked up again. About 4 o'clock Mr-Forbes White,. cashier at the Bank' of" New South Wales, who sleeps on the premises, heard a sound in the back»yard<j OjSe»-» ing his bedroom window he saw an in* distinct figure in the faint moonlight standing just in the back* door of the manager's room, which opens into the yard, and which is almost'directly beneath his. White fired r down, but missed, and the man sprinted down the yard and through a high board fencey locking the gate after him. White theH' found the gas had been turned off at the meter and.the telephone wires cut in the front office. A' passing bakery however, called in the police, but the burglar had made a get-away. The work at the bank 5 goes - to show that the burglar was a cool and experienced hand. He had entered "from the window, and # then opened' the back; door in readiness"for a sudden flight. He had obtained White's keys without' disturbing the latter, but-these were useless without the manager's keys. The occurrence at-the hotel supports!: the assumption of the previous licensee, Mrs Stenhouse (whose twice robbed, on the latter occasion being re- ■; locked), that the thief is" ■•possessed 'ofy : a key. |