STRONGROOM AND SAFE BLOWN

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27750, 30 August 1955, Page 7

STRONGROOM AND SAFE BLOWN

£3OO STOLEN FROM DRY-CLEANERS GELIGNITE AND FUSE FOUND IN RIVER Safe-blowers blasted open the doors of a strongroom and a safe inside to steal £3OO from Taylors, Cleaners and Dyers, Ltd., 57 Kilmore street, during the week-end. The building was entered from an alleyway off Victoria street. Access was gained after the thieves climbed over a roof to reach a window on the right side of the building. The door of a strongroom on the first floor was blown open with gelignite, and a safe inside the strongroom was also blown open and £3OO removed. Two plugs of gelignite and several feet of fuse were recovered from the Avon river around Park terrace by two schoolboys yesterday. It is believed that the explosive and fuse formed part of the equipment of the safeblowers. This is the second big robbery involving the blowing of safes that has occurred at Taylors in three years. On the first occasion—September 21, 1952 the thieves escaped with only £3O, but in opening the safe they caused a fire that gutted the first floor of the building fronting Kilmore street and caused more than £lO,OOO damage. The building was set on fire by smouldering material used as a packing for the explosive. Two other buildings were entered by thieves during the week-end. Several suites in High Street Chambers were ransacked, and two small amounts of money were taken. From Dr. F. Kral £8 was stolen, and from Mr J. S. Poulton, a chiropodist, £1 was stolen. Nothing was stolen from Mr E. B. Boyd-Wilson’s rooms, although the office was ransacked. Stock and £l3 10s were stolen from the tobacconist shop of Mr M. A. O’Brien, 150 Oxford terrace.