Chase After Drug Theft

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31530, 18 November 1967, Page 40

Chase After Drug Theft

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 17. A young man was caught by police at -he end of a car chase through the streets of Remuera early this morning after 100 ampoules of morphine and pethidine were stolen from a doctor’s surgery. A second man escaped. The 20-minute chase began when a patrol saw two men in a car outside the surgery about 3 a.m. The chased rental car came

to rest in a creek bed after crashing through a fence at the end of a no-exit street Sergeant B. F. Hunter and Constable B. Walker apprehended one man as he tried to make off through scrub. Police dogs called to the area lost the trail of the other man at a roadway. Dr D. I. Rowlands said that 200 disposable plastic syringes and six glass syringes were taken from his surgery besides the drugs. After an attempt was made to force the front door, entry was gained through a rear louvre window. A safe had been moved from its position. Dr Rowlands said he was called by the police to examine the arrested man

and found that he showed signs of morphine intoxication. The man also had a number of puncture marks on his arm.' The surgery has been broken into three times previously. On the first occasion $l3B was taken but nothing was stolen in the two last burglaries. “This time they were quite selective,” said Dr Rowlands. “They ignored other dangerous drugs, taking the morphine and pethidine.” A 22-year-old seaman who appeared in the Magistrate’s Court charged today with breaking and entering the surgery was remanded to Oakley Hospital for four weeks observation.