No Trace Of Truck Stolen A Year Ago

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 17

No Trace Of Truck Stolen A Year Ago

A 1967 Christchurch crime which has defied solution was the theft of a brand new truck. Even the offer of a $lOOO- - has brought no information as to what happened to the truck. It disappeared

from the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association of Canterbury’s vehicle depot between November 22, 1966 and January 13, 1967. Officials now believe that since its disappearance the truck has been fitted with a tray, repainted and registered. It could even have changed hands.

Registration of the vehicle was possible. The person who took the truck would only have to have some indication of the number series, both chassis and engine, which the manufacturer used for that particular model, and then write those numbers on the registration papers submitted.

Registrations are recorded by the plate number issued for each registration paper submitted. From the plate number, the engine number, chassis number and owner of a vehicle can be found from the registration papers. However, no separate record of either engine numbers or chassis numbers is kept It is possible, therefore, that somewhere in the country at present there are two trucks of tl.is type carrying different plate numbers whose registration papejs show they have identical engine and chassis numbers.

Another alternative is that there are three trucks on the road each with a different plate number, one being the missing vehicle whose registration papers show the engine number of one of the other two and the chassis number of the third. A third alternative is the engine and chassis number used to register the missing

truck beldng to a vehicle which has been- wrecked and is no longer on the road. For the registration papers of each vehicle of this type to be checked individually against every other registration paper for vehicles of the same type to find a duplication of either the engine or chassis number would. be a monumental task. There are hundreds of trucks of this type on New Zealand roads; Throughout the world there are thousands of vehicles of the Same type. It is possible that when the registration papers for the missing vehicle were submitted a combination of engine and chassis- numbers was used which correspond with a vehicle which never came to New Zealand. If that were the case then all the checking of registration papers would reveal no duplication.

The numbers could well have been filed off both the engine and chassis and if that were so it vould be exceedingly difficult, if the missing vehicle was located, to exclude the possibility that it was not, in fact, another vehicle of the same type. Inquiries throughout New Zealand by the police, the company who owned the truck and by General Motors, Ltd, the suppliers of the truck, have failed to reveal a trace of the truck, or any clue as to what happened to The brand new 1966 seventon Bedford truck valued at $5OOO consisted of a cab and chassis only. When taken it was similar in appearance to the truck shown in the accompanying photograph.