COUNCIL DEPOT BROKEN INTO

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26511, 28 August 1951, Page 2

COUNCIL DEPOT BROKEN INTO

YOUTHS’ WEEK END ESCAPADE

DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £2OO

Damage estimated at £2OO was done to Christchurch City Council property, including cars, trucks and bicycles, by youths who broke into the council s depot in Linwood avenue on Sunday afternoon. About 4.30 p.m. yesterday three youths, the oldest being 16, were apprehended at Culverden by Constable J. Burrell. They were in a motor-car which had been taken from the garage at the home of Mr D. Bowron, 58 Linwood avenue during the night. .Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Branch at the Central Police Station brought the youths back to Christchurch last evening. A fourth boy, aged nine, was seen at his home by detectives. The depot, which consists of a large yard, surrounded* on three sides by buildings, was securely locked for the week-end. Once inside the depot the youths set about destroying and damaging the contents until interrupted about 5.30 p.m. by a passing employee of the council, who heard the noise and went over to investigate. He called over the fence: “Are you there, Fred?” and when there was no reply he looked over the fence to see several youths leaving the depot through a rear window. One left his bicycle behind. The yard was littered with broken electric light globes, 150 of which had been taken from a case in which they had been stored after the centennial floral display. Trucks and cars had been driven into each other. The bodywork of two trucks had been damaged two others had been tampered with and the batteries of nearly all the vehicles were flat. A new petrol pump had been knocked over by a vehicle. The door of the office in which the keys are kept was opened after a window had been broken and £2 worth of tea money was taken. Machinery in other offices was interfered with and globes smashed. A number of stored dual cycles, used in the centennial celebrations, were damaged, three of them beyond repair, and a large electric drill in the machinery shop was also damaged. The petrol and oil switches of motormowers had been left on. A ladder had been used to smash the panels of the door into the general store. Stocks of seed were found scattered about the yard. An attempt had been made with spanners from the machinery shop to open the gates leading from the yard.