ESCAPED LUNATIC HOAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 106, 5 May 1923, Page 5

ESCAPED LUNATIC HOAX.

MIDNIGHT HUNT AT EPSOM. MANY WOMEN SCARED. MADMAN POSES AS WARDER. Many residents in Epsom district had the fright of their lives on Thursday evening when they received a visit from a band of their neighbours, headed by an asylum "warder," in search of a dangerous lunatic who wsi3 reported to have escaped from Avondale. The first news of the "escape" leaked out when a well-dressed man of about 30 years of age called at several houses in Edgerley Avenue, Newmarket, and announced that he was a warder from the Mental Hospital. He explained that he was looking for an inmate that had escaped that day, alleging that the escapee was Anderson, who killed a fanner with a gunshot some time ago, and who waa found to be insane. This information created quite a stir, and householders were only too glad to have the visitor search their premises in case Anderson was under one of the beds or in an outhouse. The warder very carefully closed and barred all windows, locked doors and gave much appreciated advice to the anxious residents.

Before many homes had been visited the "warder" was able to obtain assistance from a large band of public-spirited men, volunteers from various families, and something like a house-to-house search began. Wherever women were found to be the sole occupants of premises they were advised to seek the protection of friends.

The man-hunt began shortly after halffiast eight at night, and the party gradually got over towards Gillies Avenue, where a number of houses and gardens were searched, but without success. Tho quarry and vicinity were also very carefully and gingerly scoured, but a blank was drawn.

By eleven o'clock the volunteers were becoming tired, and by half-past eleven, having made sundry excuses, they left the indefatigable "warder" to carry out his duties alone.

THE SECOND ACT. The scene in the comedy then changed, and when the curtain rang up about half an hour later a man was lying in the middle of Manukau Road. In the distance a motor-car was approaching. Soon the powerful headlights showed the driver of the vehicle that there was an obstacle in the way. He pulled up, and to his horror discovered it was a body. The prostrate man was, however, quite conscious, and when asked what was the matter, declared that he had been knocked down and run over by a motorcar which had not stopped.

With the assistance of a tramway man who was passing, the motorist succeeded in getting the man into the car, and he was hurried off to the hospital, to which "he was at once admitted and examined for injuries.

When morning dawned the early risers from Epsom district, having spent a night of agony, naturally began to make inquiries as to the lunatic at large. Police Constable Powell at Newmarket was asked by the Newmarket people if the man had been captured, and, as the story was news to him, he communicated with the Mental Hospital for details. The reply he got from that institution was that there was no escapee at all. Meanwhile the tramway man had made it his business to mention the motor accident, and the constable, having obtained a description of the "warder," and also one of the motor-car "victim," was inspired to make inquiries at the city hospital. His arrival there was timely, for the doctors had decided that their patient was a malingerer, and he might soon have been out of the place. As it was, a close inspection was made of his mental condition, with the result that he was found a haven in the other hospital, from which it appears he had been discharged as cured only last February.