Two Thefts From Safe At Airport Restaurant

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30278, 2 November 1963, Page 13

Two Thefts From Safe At Airport Restaurant

The sum of £2OO was stolen from a safe in the air terminal building at the Christchurch Airport on Thursday night. Three weeks ago, £l6O was stolen from the same safe.

The money in both instances belonged to the proprietors of the Falmingo Restaurant, which is on the ground floor of the building. The thefts are puzzling the Christchurch C. 1.8., the police constable stationed permanently at the airport and the security guards, employed by the Christchurch City Council, who patrol the airport night and day. The £2OO theft was discovered yesterday by a

woman employee of the restaurant firm art. 6 a.nr when she opened the safe to get money to put in the tills. The safe had not been interfered with It is a small one, locked with a key. Security guards who checked the entrance doors to the building and offices regularly during the night found nothing insecure. Detectives found no apparent signs of the building or offices having being broken into. The airport building was closed to the public about 10 p.m. on Thursday after the last passenger flight. Civil Aviation Administration men are on duty all night in the control tower, and

Meteorological Office workers are also on duty round-the-clock. They heard or saw nothing unusual. “We provide a regular surveillance system, with frequent checks of key points and buildings within the airport, 24 houra a day,” the airport manager (Mr A. I. R. Jamieson) said last evening. The circumstances of the theft of £l6O from the safe three weeks ago were similar.

A security guard on this night did find a door in the air terminal unsecured. He locked it, but did not make further investigations, thinking that a worker had forgotten to secure the door when leaving work. The money was insured against theft. Inquiries by detectives into the thefts is continuing.