COUNTRY ROBBERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 82, 7 April 1945, Page 6

COUNTRY ROBBERY

SHOP AND POST OFFICE

EXPLOSIVES USED ON SAFES

WHANGAREI, this day,

A dual robbery at Horeke early on Wednesday, when the general store of J. R. Cleave and Company and the post office were broken into, was a particularly audacious crime. Explosives were used on the safes in both premises within about an hour. The safe in Cleave's store was blown open and about £30 in money taken, together with a large quantity of stock. The post office safe jammed in the explosion and was not opened. About £4 in small change was taken from other petty cash receptacles. At 2.45 a.m. Mr. Eric Gray heard a report similar to that of a shotgun. He noticed a dim light as if from a match or a candle in the post office window. The light went out, but Mr. Gray found both the main and back doors jemmied open. He roused Mr Cleave, who discovered a great hole smashed through a plate-glass window of his own shop, the interior of which was wrecked. The safe door was blown off by the force of the explosion, and splinters of metal had smashed into the walls and office furniture. New coats from the shop had been used to pack round the safe to deaden the noise. Every drawer and receptacle was ransacked I and the contents strewn over the floor.