SAFE BLOWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 177, 27 July 1940, Page 11

SAFE BLOWN.

IN HAMILTON SHOP.

SUSPECT REMANDED.

EARLY MORNING ARREST.

j (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

HAMILTON, this day.

As a sequel to a safe blowing in Hallenstein Bros.' shop, Victoria Street, in the early hours of this morning, a constable and a civilian chased two men allegedly concerned in the incident, and the constable caught one. The man caught did not have the contents of the safe, over £120, in his possession. Following the constable's chase, Edward Benjamin, aged 38, a seaman and porter-barman, appeared in the Police Court this morning charged with being in possession of a jemmy, hacksaw, and screwdriver with intent to commit a crime, and was remanded.

It was two o'clock this morning when Mr. L. CrotHers, night reader on the "Waikato Times," who was going home from work, heard an explosion which he thought was some little way down a side street he had just passed. He ran to Constable H. Paton, who was further up the street, and who also heard the explosion. The pair dashed down the side street and into ail alleyway which leads to rear premises facing Victoria Street, and saw two men running towards the open space of Garden Place. The constable went back to Ward Street, where he had noticed a bicycle. He commandeered it and headed thejn off, the men dodging into the technical school grounds. The constable caught one man and the other scrambled over high wire-netting and escaped.

In the meantime, the nightwatchman, Mr. H. Drummood, investigated shops and found Hallenstein Bros.' door open. The manager, Mr. D. Gracie, was summoned, and he found the safe blown open, and over £120, mostly in notes and cash, taken. The burglars gained entry by breaking a pane of glass in the fitting room and squeezing through iron bars, the bottom one being one foot from the sill. They jemmied the fitting room door and had easy access from there to the office. Men's dressing gowns and other stock were used to deaden the explosion. The door was | blown off the safe, and the men were I seen running away less than five minutes later.