MAIL VAN RIFLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 6

MAIL VAN RIFLED.

A DUTTEUrN" P.OBBE3T. I THE AUTHORITIES RETICENT. | (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") | DUNEDIN, this day. | Dunedin has been congratulating- itself | of late on the fact that notwithstanding i the Exhibition and thousands of visitors i that have been attracted to the city thereby, there has been remarkable free- ! dom from, any serious crime. The spell ; evidently has been broken, as on Saturday evening or on .Sunday last one of the ! most audacious robberies that has come ' under the notice of the local police for a ' long time was perpetrated, when a mail van in the railway yard was broken into ! and rifled. i It appears that the postal van stood ; in what is known as the "chaff siding" j j until 10 o'clock on Saturday eveninff. and I was then shunted out to the centre of | i the yard, after being loaded with two ' ! trucks of parcels and other mail matter. ! ' One contained mail matter for Christj church and the other for Lyttelton. ! Before shunting operations commenced ! the van was carefully sealed, as is i always done, and it remained under the j supervision of the railway staff until j Sunday evening, when it was attached ■ to the 0.00 p.m. express goods train that left the safe ght. It was not until the train reached Christchurch at 0.30 a.m. on Monday that it was discovered the van had been broken into and some of the contents removed. ; The work was evidently done by ex- ! perts, as there was nothing about the ; van to suggest that it had been tar- I pered with in any way. the seals appar- I ently remaining intact. ! The railway and postal authorities are I reticent about the theft, but it is ' authoritatively stated that the van was tampered with at Dunedin. and that the j pillaging occurred whilst the van re- j mained in the yard here. This is the ; most daring theft that has occurred in j Dunedin since a bag containing £700 mys- I teriously disappeared from the strong room in a bank some time ago. It is understood a good haul was made, but the authorities are not in a position to I give an estimate of the value of the I articles stolen. I