$3600 taken from safe

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32893, 17 April 1972, Page 1

$3600 taken from safe

Thieves took about $3600 in cash from a safe which they cut open in the strongroom of Drayton-Jones, Ltd, on the comer of Lichfield Street and Colombo Street, between 9 p.m. on Friday night and 8 a.m. yesterday morning. An acetylene torch was used to cut the safe, and the cash taken represented the store’s turnover after banking late on Friday afternoon. A bundle of cheques was left untouched. The thieves entered the shop by smashing wire-reinforced glass on a fire escape door. They left the building by forcing a lock on another door. Detectives believe the offenders used a vehicle in the raid and have asked any person who saw a vehicle parked near the building, or in an adjacent driveway, to get in touch with them. SORTED The offenders sorted the contents of the safe on a settee in the store. Apart from a transistor radio no stock in the store is believed to have been stolen. The general manager (Mr G. W. Drayton), shown in the photograph inspecting the damaged strongroom door, said the thieves appeared to know what to take and what to leave. He said it was the | first time since 1945 that the safe at Dray-ton-Jones had been tampered with. In 1945 an unsuccessful attempt was made to blow it with explosives. Six members of the C. 1.8. break squad were working on the inquiry yesterday.