Shot report false alarm

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34072, 9 February 1976, Page 1

Shot report false alarm

Police cars rushed to a! Rangiora street yesterday after reports that a rifle shot; had been fired through the! window of a house.

But what at first appeared! to be an armed offender inci-, I dent turned out to be a "fiz-i Izer,” according to the police.) ; The culprits — two youths I [on a magpie-shooting expedition — were apprehended! and later charged with dis- ! charging a firearm in a public! place. Policemen from Rangiora: and Kaiapoi and three patrol; cars from Christchurch con-; verged on Coldstream Road; about 4 p.m. after a woman! reported that a shot had been fired at her house.

A fragment from an airgun! slug or light-rifle bullet was) found in a bedroom, and the! police began an intensive) hunt for a car seen leav-| ing the area. The car was! found soon after in Rangi-) ora.

Its two young occupants told the police that the .22 rifle they were carrying was for shooting magpies. The weapon was confiscated for “checking purposes,” a police spokesman said.