£900 Taken In Mailbag Theft

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 9

£900 Taken In Mailbag Theft

(New Zealand Press Association).

WELLINGTON, September 2. About £9OO was stolen between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. yesterday from a mailbag on the Plimmerton Railway Station. - The theft was after a telephone call had been made to the Plimmerton Post Office which caused the mailbag to be unattended for some time and collected later.

Police described the theft as well organised and one of the most cunningly planned in the Wellington area for some years.

Yesterday and this morning details of the theft were suppressed as far as possible by the' Wellington C. 1.8., while detectives made intensive investigations in the Plimmerton and Wellington areas. Early Passengers

From 7.30 a.m. detectives were at Plimmerton railway station • interviewing early passengers.

The stolen money is believed to have been sent to Plimmerton for pensions. Five mailbags were consigned to Plimmerton on the electric unit which left Wellington at 7.18 a.m. Normally mail is met and collected from the Plimmerton station by Post Office staff. It is believed that a telephone call was made to the Plimmerton Post Office or to the officer who normally makes the mail collection yesterday morning before the unit arrived. A message was given that the mail would be consigned on a later unit, not the one which left Wellington at 7.18 a.m.

As a result the mailbags were not collected till about 9 a.m. The five mailbags were stacked at the southern comer of the busy station. The thief picked out two, including the one containing the £9OO, and carried them a few paces into the men’s toilet There he broached the bags and sorted through to find three registered articles, one the package of money. Today checks are being made by the Post Office on security procedures used for mails in, transit by public transport.