BANK’S SAFE OPENED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29055, 18 November 1959, Page 9

BANK’S SAFE OPENED

Intruder Caught By Constable (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 16. The clank of an iron bar on metal in the absolute quiet of Royal Oak shopping centre, about 3.25 a.m. today led Constable Derek Tucker, of Onehunga, to an intruder who had cut open a safe in the local agency of the Bank of New Zealand. In the shadows between the bank premises and a nearby service station, Constable Tucker found a man carrying a crowbar. * Constable Tucker, blasting repeatedly on his police whistle, chased the intruder as he ducked and dodged through nearby properties.

But the whistle went unheeded —no light went on anywhere nor did anyone seem to hear —and the constable finally caught his man single-handed as he was trying desperately to fight his way through a hedge. Detectives later found the gascutting equipment from the Royal Oak service centre garage had been dragged across several yards of ground and hoisted into the bank agency through a rear window.

A hole had been neatly cut in the side of the safe and the thief had apparently gone to get a crowbar to help force out the trays still in the safe. The thief would have had little enough reward. There was only about £8 in pennies and halfpennies in the safe.

Later today a man appeared in the Magistrate’s Court charged with breaking and entering the agency. He was remanded to appear again next Monday.