TRAP FOR MOTORISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1913, Page 8

TRAP FOR MOTORISTS.

■a ■ : TERRIBLE OUTRAGa ,WIRE ACROSS A ROAD. A trap, set apparently by thieves, 1 on.the . Hennigsdorf Road, near Rerlin, on March B 2, resulted in the deaths of two motorists , and.injuries. to a.third.. A. wire had been j' stretched-across the road, and a motor car, I belonging to Herr- Plunz, a Berlin jeweller, j' ran into It in the darkness. Herr Plunz . and his wife were killed on the spot, and r his daughter received Injuries. .'■ j A great sensation has been caused by the outrage.. .The police' investigating the affair . incline-to the belief that the fiendish trap into which -Herr 'Plunz's motor-car run was set by robbers, wJho expected to he able to take their victims at a disadvantage after wrecking, their, car. y-- A - number, of - arrests on suspicion have 5 already been made In connection with.' the 1 affair, and handsome rewards are being r ottered for the apprehension of the criminals. The Opel automobile firm has offered , £35, the Imperial Automobile Club has " r promised to give £150, and the sums offered j by various leading motor bring the s total,-amount offered up to £1,000. i The latest details of the affair show that ■ a wire nearly. MOft in length Jhad been stretched across the Toadway. It was no , thin • wire of the piano or telephone type, * but a length •of cable as thick as one's linger, or.thiclier, such as.employed on ship- £ board or in the running of lifts, it was . drawn. across the road at such a height J from the ground as to suggest that the 1 view taken by.the police is not sufficiently 3 serious, and that the miscreants' plot waa » a frankly murderous one. I Herr nuns was at the wheel of the i car, and -with him were his wife mid their • elder danghter. Two other daughters were 1 riding In the rear seat. The car ran into i the trap at a good speed, with the ghastly r result that the unfortunate jeweller was '. nearly decapitated, the wire inflicting a i terrible wound in his throat. r Fran Plana and the danghter sitting -with ( her were both struck by tho wire, which : f cut them and hurled them out of the car, ; and the former's fall was so violent that her neck was broken. Her daughter's injuries are comparatively slight. The two other daughters instinctively ducked their j ] heads • when the wire strnck those in front, and escaped absolutely uninjured. t ' -