Armed Men Caught After Long Chase By Police

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 1

Armed Men Caught After Long Chase By Police

Two men in their twenties were captured at gunpoint by a Timaru constable and a traffic officer in the Pareora Gorge last evening after they had abandoned a car stolen from Cromwell. Both men wore ammunition belts and one had a loaded shotgun.

They ran from the car. Constable D. R. Jack called on them to stop. They continued running across the paddock but stopped and were arrested without any resistance after the constable had fired a warning shot over their heads. A police alert involving Otago, South Canterbury and Christchurch began in the morning after a constable at Cromwell had been threatened by one of the men with a shotgun. The constable was warned that the shotgun would be used if he pursued the men. This incident followed the constable’s investigation of a fire on a sheep station near Cromwell, in which a woolshed and a car were destroyed. Constable G. P. Ogilvie, of Cromwell, Was called to a fire in a woolshed on the Waitiri station, run by Mr E. R. Cook, in the Kawarau Gorge, between Cromwell and Queenstown. Woolshed Destroyed Constable Ogilvie found the old woolshed destroyed by fire. Hay and fertiliser stored in it were also destroyed. The wooden, corrugated ironroofed building was in ruins. A car in the woolshed was reduced to twisted scrap. However, the engine number led the police to believe that it

was a rental car several days overdue from Nelson. Constable Ogilvie, skip of the New Zealand champion bowling pair this year, was on his way back to Cromwell from the fire when he was stopped by two young men. “They "were dressed as stalkers, wearing ammunition belts, with knives and a shotgun. They had packs and said they were on a hunting expedition and were heading for Cromwell for supplies,” Constable Ogilvie said last evening.

“I did not say anything about the fire,” said Constable Ogilvie. “I asked them for their knives as they got in the car. I was not in uniform. However, as we drew up at the Cromwell Police Station, where I intended to ask them more questions, they saw the police sign. Constable Threatened “Before the car had stopped, they were out. of it. One of them turned the shotgun on me, and said he would use it if I chased them. They ran down the street. They were too young and fast for me.” One of the men said they would use the shotgun “on any cop” who interfered with them. The two men ran through two sections into Donegal street, Constable Ogilvie said. Within five minutes it was reported to him that a car, belonging to Mr H. C. Booth, of 14 Donegal street, had been stolen. Constable Ogilvie notified

the Dunedin police. This was about 12.35 p.m. Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru and Christchurch police, and all police stations in the three districts were notified. Car Sighted Police check points were set up and about 3.15 p.m., the stolen car was sighted travelling north on the main road at Maheno, south of Oamaru. Police cars from Oamaru followed up behind the car. Cars from Timaru, Waimate and other stations converged on the area. Police cars from Rakaia and Ashburton went south and check points were set up as far north as Rakaia. Later, the car was seen to turn inland at Otaio, south of Timaru. Police check points were maintained south and North of Otaio on the main road and police cars circled the area from the coast to the snowline on the inland roads from Waimate, Bluecliffs, Timaru, Hinau and through Geraldine and Rakaia.

Police at Benmore, Coleridge, Pukaki and other inland points were alerted and put on the road. About 5.30 p.m. the stolen car was sighted on the Pareora Gorge road, a few miles inland, south-west of Timaru. by Constable D. Jack and Traffic Officer O. Soal, of Timaru. Constable Jack was in the traffic car. The fugitives stopped the stolen car and ran away but were captured after the constable had fired the warning shot. The two men were taken to the Timaru Police Station and will appear in the Magistrate’s Court today on a charge of converting a car.