Garage Manager’s Search With Loaded Shotgun

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28531, 10 March 1958, Page 8

Garage Manager’s Search With Loaded Shotgun

Carrying a loaded shotgun and clad in pyjamas, Mr C. G. Mclver, manager of the Midway Service Station, Ltd., Papanui, took part early yesterday morning in a search in his garage that ended with the arrest of a man on a charge of breaking and entering. In September, 1955, Mr Mclver disturbed two thieves in his garage, and after chasing one for a mile shot at and wounded the man, who was later convicted of breaking and entering. About 1 a.m. yesterday, Mr Mclver learned that a man was in his garage. He seized his shotgun, which he keeps loaded, and asked his wfie to telephone the police. He called two neighbours, Messrs Roy and Alan Chapman, and the three men ran to the garage, which is less than 200 yards from Mr Mclver’s home.

“We attempted to guard all the exits, and I crept up to the window of my office,” Mr Mclver said. “I saw a man crouched over a cabinet in the office, and I could hear him trying to break into it. I didn’t want him to damage the cabinet, so I made a noise to frighten him away.” Soon afterwards DetectiveSergeant T. Thomson and Detective R. Mitchell arrived in a patrol car—only a few minutes after Mrs Mclver’s call had been

received at the Central Police Station. The detectives, who had come in an 85-mile-an-hour dash from the Christchurch railway station, arrived a few seconds before another patrol car with Constables A. Spittle and G. Langley reached the garage. Detective - Sergeant Thomson and Mr Mclver then went into the building, found the office empty, and searched the garage workshop. Mr Mclver said that he saw a man hiding under the running board of a car that was on a hoist. “I told him to come out, or I’d give him a blast with the’ shotgun. ‘Don’t kill me,’ he yelled back, and tumbled out,’’ said Mr Mclver.

A 22-year-old man was later charged with breaking and entering a counting-house, and he will appear in the Magistrate’s Court today.