NEWMARKET THIEVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 251, 23 October 1928, Page 7

NEWMARKET THIEVES.

GRAMOPHONE SHOP ENTERED.

UITUSUAI. METHODS USED.

LITTLE REWARD TOR TROUBLE.

Little reward for their work was received by thieves who broke into Howies music shop in Broadway, Newmarket, during the long week-end. Obviously they wanted money, for although there were a number of portable gramophones in the shop, none of these was taken. Only a pound note and three shillings insilver, which was in the till, was stolen.

The method of entrance was unusual, and it must have taken the visitors some time to force their way into the premises. There is a small door in ths back wall of the shop, beneath the level of the flooring, and, approaching this irom a large yard bordering on the railway line, they worked from underneath, boring twenty-two holes with brace-and-oit in two lines across two boards. These, which are fitted by a tongue-and-groove, were lilted, leaving a gap just large enough for a man to crawl through.

Once inside they set to work to ransack the place, and when the staff came to woik this morning the shop was littered. Records lay all over the counter, some replaced in their envelopes, others left in untidy heaps, and gramophone needles were strewn over the floor. Each compartment and shelf had been gone through, and few of the goods were in their right places.

Even boxes in which dusters are kept lnJ been turned out. Several valuable records, recorded by "top artists," and many of them priced at 15/ each, had been taken down from the shelves, but were left on a small table in a room at the rear of the shop.