Break-iii backfires on burglar

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 1

Break-iii backfires on burglar

A man did not reckon with the vigilance of Sheffield residents when he broke into a service /station in the township'early yesterday. . . ■ He was handed over to the police, sporting a blackeye, after climbing but the window of the Sheffield Garage at 1.20 a.m. into the arms of the service station’s proprietor and head mechanic. Constable K. Fletcher, the Darfield policeman, said that the mechanic had

been in the lounge of. his house -opposite the garage when he heard a car travelling/west, stop and do a U-turn. “He thought that was pretty strange at that hour of the morning, and he looked out to see someone trying to get into the garage through the lubrica-tion-bay doors,” said Constable Fletcher. : “He then heard a loud bang, and telephoned the owner of the garage. They went over and waited until the man came out of the

window, and grabbed him,” Constable Fletcher said. The man made the mistake of reaching into his pocket, and was dealt with “firmly,” according to Constable Fletcher. A search of his pockets disclosed only three packets of sweets and four of cigarettes. A man will appear in the Magistrate’s Court this morning charged with burgling the service station, and with unlawfully interfering with a van.