TAXI CAR STOLEN.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 2, 3 January 1924, Page 3

TAXI CAR STOLEN.

AN IMPUDENT THEFT.

DRIVEN OFF WHILE OWNER AT TEA.

FORD GAR ALSO DISAPPEARS. The theft of a. large five-scater Hudson taxicar was perpetrated in an impudent manner shortly after 0 o'clock last evening, a man driving ou" while the owner was away at tea. The taxi proprietor, Mr. Arthur Boyle, left his oar standing at UTioul iiie middle of the Customs .Street rank. He had been gone only a few minutes when a strange man jumped into the car. started the engine and drove off at a high speed. The whole thing was done so quickly and quietly that the car was out of sight before any of the other drivers realised that the ear had been taken unlawfully. The car. which was painted grey, carried the number A 1090. ' The owner of a nve-seater Vord car. Xo. A 8520. Mr. Mortensen. of Dominion Road, found on returning from Ellerslie racecourse yesterday afternoon that his car had been driven oft" by two young i men. It had been left standing in Freeman's paddock, near the course, and at about ."5.30 o'clock two young men called : at a nearby house and stated that they ! had been told to take the car away, j They then drove ofT. and nobody sus- I pec.ted that anything was amiss till Mr. ■ Mortensen returned. It is thought that - the young men concerned took'the car in a spirit of bravado, and. that they ( have abandoned it somewhere in a secluded spot. During the holiday season there have been numerous complaints concerning the , activities of ','joy riders." who take cars j away and abandon them in some out-of- : the-way spot when the petrol tank is ' dry. Motorists would do well to exercise ' more than ordinary caution at this time i of the year, when irresponsible person's, with an inordinately developed sense of "humour," take delight in playing this sort of prank, which more often than not is expensive and inconvenient to the victim of the "joke."