ARREST MADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 137, 13 June 1938, Page 7

ARREST MADE.

ROTORUA DRAMA.

ESCAPE FROM CELLS. ALL-NIGHT SEARCH ENDS. ATTEMPT ON SAFE SEQUEL (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) ROTOKUA; this day. After a 12-hour search throughout the district by police, a man, said to be Kenneth William Edward Bates, was arrested at Cambridge this morning. Ho was taken from a truck in which he had claimed a "lift." It was the concluding episode in a drama which began about 4 a.m. yesterday, when two suspects wero arrested by constables following an attempt to blow open a safe in tlio Government Tourist Office at Rotorua. That was followed by the sensational discovery last night that one of the men had disappeared and that part of the wooden flooring had been torn up.

Co-ordination by the district police and detectives from Auckland and Hamilton resulted in the arrest of a man alleged to be the escapee, Kenneth William Edward Bates, after about 12 hours of liberty, when he was apprehended at Cambridge shortly after ten o'clock this morning. The arrest was made bv Constable R. llaisev following an all night search in which close watch was kept on all roads leading from the district.

Watch Kept for Truck. Information was received at Rotorua from Constable Cotter, of Putaruru, that a man answering the description of Bates had been given a lift by a delivery man named Newton who, it was stated, was heading either for Putaruru or Cambridge. Detective-Sergeant | Alpin and Constable Deacon, of Auckland, in.mediately set out by car, while the Rotorua police advised other stations. Watching the main road, Constable Jlaisey saw the approach of Newton's truck and effected a smart arrest. The escapee was taken to Hamilton. Detective Thompson and a number of eonstables arc still out searching, and it is not known yet when Bates and his accomplice will make their appearance in Court. It is likely, however, that the two men will be brought 011 to Auckland to-day. Muffled Explosion. The arrest of the two'suspects was itself affected sensationally. Attracted by the sound of what happened to be a muffled explosion about 4 a.m. yesterday morning, Constables G. M. Roberts and Patterson, who were on beat duty in Tutanekai Street, investigated, and, it is alleged, surprised two men in the act of setting a charge of

.tplosivo in the safe of the Tourist Department offices. Constable Roberts immediately slammed the strong room door, shutting one man inside. The other submitted quietly to arrest. The two constables immediately communiciited by telephone with Senior Sergeant E. J. Carroll and Sergeant T. Dunn, who arrived quickly by car and took charge of the two men. When they were questioned both men stated that they had arrived in Rotonia by train, but a ticket found upon one of them led to the discovery ftf a car which was parked in Tutanekai Street, near the lake front, and which allegedly contained a large quantity of incriminating material. , Escape From Cells. Further sensation was added when it was discovered about 11 p.m. that one of the men, whose name was stated to be Bates, had cscaped fvom a cell at the Rotorua police station. The method employed by Bates in prising up the floor boards of the cell is not known, as both men were thoroughly searched before being locked up. The ccll was inspected at 10 p.m., when all appeared to be in order, yet an hour later, when the'constables in charge paid another visit, Bates had . disappeared. When the constables looked through the cell grating they saw one man lying on a mattress in a corner, apparently asleep. When they asked him where his companion was he said that he was in the other corner and was not feeling very well. A mattress was over the hole in the floor. The soil underneath the cell, fortunately for the purposes of the escapee, is very light and friable, and this enabled him to burrow a tunnel which brought him out in the grounds of the adjoining police sergeant's residence.