REWARD AT LAST FOR ‘PHANTOM’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33728, 28 December 1974, Page 2

REWARD AT LAST FOR ‘PHANTOM’

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. Dec. 27. The “phantom” carspotter, who for the last eight years has helped the Auckland police to recover hundreds of stolen cars, has finally received a reward — a cheque for $5OO from a grateful car dealer. Last Thursday a man pulled up in a Japanese car outside a used-car yard in Auckland and asked to test-drive a Japanese sports car worth about S6OOO. He did not come back. A check revealed that the car he had arrived

in was stolen from another dealer. The police issued the usual bulletins and the car was seen on three separate occasions, but disappeared. On Christmas morning the “phantom” car-spotter saw it parked in a St Heliers Street, and he immediately reported it to a policeman living nearby. As a result, a man was arrested on charges of unlawfully taking cars. Today, the car dealer presented the “Phantom” with a cheque for $5OO — the first reward of real

substance he has had in all his years of car spotting. The “phantom,” who still wishes to remain anonymous, drives in his truck all day and has a photographic memory for car numbers and descriptions. He gets regular bulletins of stolen cars from the police and also listens to radio reports and keeps a tally of them in a book in his truck. He has found about 95 cars so far this year, more than 20 of them in the last three months. The reward will be used towards buying a new car for himself.