BURGLAR HUNT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 236, 5 October 1935, Page 11

BURGLAR HUNT.

CHASE IN CITY.

OVER £5O STOLEN. hotel rooms visited. SUSPECT IN CUSTODY. An exciting burglar hunt took place early this morning in Wynyard Street, where a suspect was arrested and hand■tiffed, after a. scuffle, by Constables dossil and Willoughby. A hotel, a. private hotel and a boarding house were entered and between £5O and £6O in notes is said to have been stolen. The excitement began in the Royal Court private hotel, Wynyard Street, at 3.30 a.m., When one of the boarders, a young woman occupying a room on the upstairs floor, awoke to find a man in her room. She caught a glimpse of him as he dashed out of her door into the passage. She knocked bard on the wall of the adjoining room, which is occupied by Mr. Bagnall.

Mr. Bagnall Jumped out o' bed, and In the passage found two handbags lying open on a settee. lie saw no sign of the man, but heard a. noise at the rear of the premises. Looking down into the yard he was just in time to see a man disappear over- a concrete wall and drop down into the yard of the Presbyterian manse next door. The central police station was telephoned and advised that a thief had been in the house. The young woman who had bee'n disturbed found that £4 10/ had been taken from one of her handbags. Both bags had been taken from a drawer.

Several rooms in Royal Court were entered by the intruder, and money was also taken from the clothing of a boarder in a nearby boardinghouse. Discovery in Hotel.

At 5.30 this morning a burglar was discovered in the Strand Hotel, Parnell, near the railway bridge. Here the intruder secured a good haul, entering the bedroom of a boarder, extracting £42 in notes from his coat pocket, and leaving the room without waking him. After being seen and chased the burglar escaped by descending the fire escape and vaulting over the yard gate into Stanley Street. The licensee, Mr. N. Cunningham, was awake early this morning in order to attend the racing track, and 5 shortly after 5 o’clock his wife drew his attention to a suspicious noise downstairs. At first Mr. Cunningham thought that it was only one of the four boarders in the hotel, but a few minutes later, on going into the passage to investigate, he was met by a boarder who had awakened to find a strange man disappearing along the passage and going in the direction of the fire escape on a roof balcony. The boarder was not quick enough to intercept the intruder before ho quickly descended the fire escape, but he watched the man jump over the gate and hurry along Stanley Street in the direction of the Domain.

By this time it was found that two rolls of notes, in fivers and singles, amounting to £42, had been taken from the coat in the boarder’s room. The other boarder decided to follow the man, who had gone along Stanley Street. In the meantime, Mr. Cunningham telephoned the police station and advised the police of the theft. Almost Daylight,

The suspect was followed by the hoarder into Alien Road and Wynyard Street. ByT.his time it was almost daylight. The suspect was seen to disappear behind one of the large boardinghouses in this street. The pursuing boarder met the police patrol car in which were Constables Cossil and Willoughby. A thorough search of the locality was made, but no trace of the man could be seem

At six o’clock, when several doors away from Royal Court, the constable saw a man emerge from a pile of wood in the back yard, of a boardinghouse. A youth of 16, aroused by the constable, who had been searching near the premises of a boardinghouse where he lived, saw the man jump over a fence into another yard. ‘‘There he is,” said one of the constables. “Grab him.”

The youth, a well-built boy, being closer to the man than either of the constables, went in and collared the man in approved football style, delaying him long enough for Constable Cossil to catch him. Following a brief scuffle, the constable snapped the “bracelets” on the suspect, who was taken to the lock-up by the two constables.

STEWARD’S ARREST.

BREAKING AND ENTERING CHARGE. POLICE OBTAIN' REMAND. Described as a marine steward, Fredtrick Fahey, aged 36, appeared in the Police Court to-day before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., charged with breaking •".nd entering by night the premises of lioyal Court, Wynyard Street, and stealing £4 10/8, the property of Jane Armstrong. On the application of Sub-Inspector Fox accused was remanded to appear on October b2.