Missing Boy Found Jammed In Pipe

Press, Volume C, Issue 29478, 3 April 1961, Page 10

Missing Boy Found Jammed In Pipe

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, April 2.* Jammed in a nine-inch diameter concrete pipe, a small boy was rescued after being missing for more than 28 hours at Green Bay this week-end. The boy, Christopher Bandertogt, aged 3, son of Mr and Mrs C. T. Bandertogt. of Cliff View drive. Green Bay. was found only 60 yards from his borne. Dozens of searchers had scoured a large area nearby and had all but abandoned the search until daybreak tomorrow. A neighbour, Mr A. Frost, heard moans coming from a drain pipe set into a clav bank about 9 pjn. He could see no sign of the missing boy, but with Mr Bandertogt and five other men he frantically dug the pipe loose from the sodden clay. Young Cl ristopher was stuck firmly in the bottom of the pipe with his feet protruding from the end. The boy was weary, but unhurt, apart from slight exposure. Dr. H. Collinson, of New Lynn, one o f the rescuers, treated the boy who was taken to his I me and put to bed after a hot drink. Christopher was apparently playing with his two-year-old brother Oliver when he fell into the pipe late on Saturday afternoon. His arms and elbows became wedged and he was

unable to crawl to the surface.

Christopher, before he dropped off to sleep tonight, said that “Oliver tried to get me out, but he was too little.” The younger boy cannot talk properly yet. He had pointed out the pipe soon after the search started but searchers could see no sign of Christopher or hear any noise. One man. Mr J. Claxton, heard cries earlier tonight He and others searched the area, but found nothing. “I must have been standing only eight feet from him at one stage,” he said. Parties pushed through scrub and bush near the Pinesong restaurant, about a quarter of a mile away, from about 7 p.m. on Saturday, where Christopher was last reported to have been seen. Two police dogs were used and many local residents, holidaymakers, and scouts camped nearby joined the hunt. Hopes of finding the boy alive were fading when there had been no sign of him by nightfall today. Rain, which spoiled the scent for the tracker dogs fell early this morning and again in the afternoon, when temperatures dropped. Search conditions were difficult It was thought the boy might have fallen off the steep cliffs into the sea.