TWO SUSPECTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 84, 20 January 1930, Page 3

TWO SUSPECTS

AUCKLAND SAFE-BLOWING. ARREST AFTER LONG VIGIL. (Per Press Association ) AUCKLAND, January 18. In dramatic circumstances early this morning, detectives arrested two men, both 25 years old, who are stated to have admitted that they have been responsible for a number of safe blowing jobs in Auckland during the last few 'weeks. All the paraphernalia oi expert cracksmen were found in their possession. . The men were arrested in Wellington Street at 2 o'clock this morning by Detectives C. Packman and Allen. Since Hutchison Bros.' store in Gireat South Road was broken into one Friday night just before Christmas, and goods and money totalling £B9 were stolen, detectives have scoured the city and suburbs nightly. The net was cast far and was gradually drawn tighter until last night two detectives waited under the shadow of the suspected safe-blowers' own room in Wellington Street. If these two suspects turned out to be the wanted men, they now had only the slenderest chance of slipping through the net. It was on Friday night—the late night for the suburban grocers, when the takings could not.be banked—that, armed with sale-blowing equipment, two men left a room in Wellington Street, where two girls, one the 18-vear-old wife of one of them, waited anxiously for their return. The rretectives let the men go. Through the night the detectives waited round. Occasionally the girls looked anxiously out of the window up and down the street. The lights went out at the approach of footsteps and then flashed on again as the steps faded in the distance. Somewhere near midnight the detectives slipped quietly down an alleyway near the side of the house. There they waited and watched. In the meantime the cracksmen had journeyed to Kingsland. Two attempts to break and enter grocery shops were barred by strong padlocks. Page's store sn one side of the road showed the marks of a jemmy this morning, and one of the padlocks on the front door was forced. Directly opposite is the New North Road branch of the SelfHelp Stores. Jemmy marks bore out the men's statement that they had made an attempt on that store. Returning home, the men readied Wellington Street just before two o'clock. Their approaching footsteps attracted the attention of the women waiting within the house. The screech of a window being hoisted was heard by the detectives while standing in the shadows of -the alleyway. A woman's head was thrust out, and after a quick glance at the homecomers the window was shut down and lights appeared. When almost at the gateway, the two men wore accosted by the detectives, who had silently slipped out of the shadows. Only a lew words passed between the quartette. A visit to the Detective Office was suggested and, realising that the ganie was the .Tacksmen agreed.

The detectives searched the room, but found nothing of interest. The men turned out their pockets and' this was the attractive little pile they produced: Gelignite, detonators, a fuse, an electric torch, a vicious-looking knuckle-duster, and a jemmy. When the Detective Office was leached the men admitted that they had been responsible for safe-blowing and the theft at Hutchinson's Great South Road store, where they made a haul if £B9. They had made attempts on four other stores. On one "job" they put a charge of gelignite in a safe, but the plan miscarried.

They appeared at the Police Court on a charge of breaking and entering nnd were remanded to January 2-1.