THIEF ENTERS R.S.A. OFFICE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27273, 13 February 1954, Page 2

THIEF ENTERS R.S.A. OFFICE

ABOUT £9O STOLEN FROM STRONGROOM

About £9O was stolen from the strongroom when a thief entered the headquarters of the Christchurch Returned Services' Association on Thursday night. A radiator was left burning near some papers and records the thief had piled in a heap, and it was still turned on when the caretaker went on duty at 7 a.m. yesterday. “Some of the papers were scorched,” said the president of the association (Mr G. D. Hattaway) yesterday. “Had the radiator been on another half an hour a fire would probably have started,” he added.

“The door of the strongroom was wide open this morning, and the cashboxes had been gone through carefully,” said Mr Hattaway. “The thief shifted a lot of records from the strongroom to the typists’ room and that was where the radiator was found turned on. Some of the papers were torn. Members’ records were opened, and some were ripped out of the trays.”

The records were all strewn about the office in a manner that showed no purpose at all, said Mr Hattaway. Some of the stolen cash was war pensioners’ money left with the association for safe keeping. Cigarettes were also stolen. The lock on the strongroom door did not appear to have been tampered with, and there was some doubt as to how the intruder gained entry to the building itself, Mr Hattaway said.