LOCK DAMAGED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 61, 23 December 1935, Page 6

LOCK DAMAGED

ATTEMPT TO ENTER SHOP. IMPUDENT THEFT OF DOOR KEYS INCIDENTS IN EAST STREET. A hold attempt to enter the book shop of Mr M. J. Burgess, in East Street, Ashburton, was made during the week-end, following the impudent theft of the keys of the shop. Mr Burgess, with his daughter, was working in his shop during Saturday afternoon, and later Miss Burgess left for her home, placing the keys in the front of the door and pulling it closed ready for Mr Burgess to lock when he was ready to leave a lew minutes later. About two minutes after Miss Burgess liad left, Mr Burgess, who was working in a recess which could not be seen from the doorway, heard a faint rattle as if the keys had been touched, but he did not investigate, as he thought that his daughter had met a friend and had not moved away from the shop as soon as she went through the doorway. When it was discovered that the keys had been taken, Mr Burgess arranged for the placing of a new .lock on the door, and he notified the police of the circumstances. Mr Burgess was moie than ordinarily anxious regarding the possible return of the thief, because of the fact that the safe keys were included in the bunch taken. However, some time duilng the weekend an attempt was made to remove the new lock, a wrench of some kind being used in an endeavour to screw it out of its socket. Tho lock was a variation of the ordinary lock of similar manufactiwe, however, and the attempt failed because of a special featura which protects it from treatment such as the would-be burglar meted out to it.

ANOTHER HOUSE ENTERED, SMALL SUM OF MONEY TAKEN. During the brief absence of the cocupier from a house in Walker Street on Saturday afternoon, an unknown person entered and stole £4 in money. This is the eighth house to he burgled in a small area in two months, seven of tho cases haying been reported in tho last two weeks.