MAN'S DESPERATE LEAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 13 January 1926, Page 11

MAN'S DESPERATE LEAP.

JUMPS FROM THIRD STOREY.

CROWD GIVES CHASE

Leaping over forty feet from a thirdstorey window of the Dominion Hotel, Frank Halligan, a young man, picked himself up. and. though bleeding badly, ran se%-eral chains before he was overtaken by detectives and arrested on two charges of theft (says the "Lyttelton Times"). With blood streaming from a severe wound in his head, the man rushed along Gloucester Street, a crowd of forty or fifty people at his heels. For a moment there had been some uncertainty as to which direction the fugitive had taken, but a number of youths on bicycles soon put all doubt at rest. •'There" he goes'." they shrieked, as they set off in pursuit. Anticipating a lively chase, Mr. Percy Curtis, licensee of the hotel, jumped to the wheel of his ear and followed the man, who although injured in the hazardous leap he had made, covered . the first hundred yard-s from the hotel J in surprising time. "He's done," shouted one of the army of pursuers, when the man reached "the Manchester Street intersection. And Halligan was done. The loss of blood which he had suffered had told upon his strength, and he fell into a crumpled heap on the ground just as Detectives Maine and Sanvig arrived from the Central Police Station. A Man in her Room. It was just before six o'clock in the evening that one of the housemaids at the hotel acquainted Mr. Curtis v of the fact that there wa's a strange man in her room, and that £3 had been taken from the box in which she kept her money. Mr. Curtis hurried up to the room and found that the intruder was.still there. Asked for an explanation, the man. who lost none of his equanimity, said that he had evidently made a mistake. "I am looking for the lavatory," he said. "My mistake." But that was not enough for Mr. Curtis. Catching the man by the arm as.be .drew away, he told him that he would have to give a more satisfactory explanation of his presence in the room before he would be allowed his liberty. The intruder appeared to be nonplussed. . ' "Well, I will have to call the police," said Mr. Curtis. "Perhaps you will be able to explain to Ihem." But Halli-' gan said that he did not want to meet the police, and it was evident that he spoke the truth. '"Let mc go," he ■pleaded. "I am a married man with a family. This would go bad with mc." Mr. Curtis continued to hold his arm. Then without a moment's warning the man, who had evidently realised the futility of further pleading, broke away, from the. detaining hand and dashed to a*nearby window. He hesitated for one brief moment as he surveyed the ground- below him. It was a sheer drop of over forty feet, but it was his only chance. Mr. Curtis walked over towards the window, and Halligan, with the outward complacency of one about to make a dive from a springboard, made his desperate leap. Those who witnessed the affair were horrified and had little doubt that he would be killed. But they were wrong. Lea.vi.ng a pool of blood -, to mark ; the spot wtiereVlie had fallen , , the "man picked himself- up and made a dash, -for a nearby gate:) The alarm' had.already been' given, however, and he had- not. gone far when, turning, he found that. he was. being hotly pursued by. an army •of men and youths, who were actuated more by a curiosity to learn the cause of his haste than by any desire to impede his.progress.: The Arrest. Having been summoned by telephone, Detectives Maine and Sanvig joined in the chase and reached the Manchester Street intersection just as Mr. Curtis drove up with, his ear. Halligan, who presented a sorry picture, and was obviously exhausted "from the - strenuous nature of' the events of- r the preceding five minutes, submitted But he did not intend to v let the" officers have all their own way. v \ \ It.was not until he reached the Ce,n-! tral. Pdlice ' Station that he decided to let them see what he could do when occasion demanded. But when he started, his demonstration was so 'practical in nature, and the furious thrust of-Iris arm was so telling in its effect, that the services of several officers had to be requisitioned before the prisoner could .be quietened. He was out to make a noise—and he made it. His fists shot put in all 'directions, sometimes to connect with nothing—but not always. • It was clear from the mad shrieks of the man, and his general demeanor that he was in a bad way, and it was decided' to call in medical aid. When Dr. Crooke saw; the man he had no hesitation in ordering his admission to the Christchurch Hospital, to which he was immediately removed. When he is sufficiently recovered he will be brought before' a magistrate to answer two charges of theft. | At the Christchurch Hospital Halligan was kept under police guard throughout the night. His injuries, itwas reported, were confined to severe cuts on his head and hands and numerous body bruises.