Cab call catches cat burglar

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 4

Cab call catches cat burglar

By NEIL CLARKSON While most of Christchurch people slept on Wednesday night, a jogging senior-sergeant was in the throes of catching a burglar. The hero of the story is Senior-Sergeant Warren Kemp, who took charge of the police control room from 11 p.m. on Wednesday until 7 a.m. yesterday. Meal-time came and Senior-Sergeant Kemp was seen leaving the Central Police Station just after 2 a.m., resplendent in running gear. His usual route through Hagley Park beckoned but instead he chose to familiarise himself with

the many new buildings round the inner city. He headed south-east and at 2.20 a.m., at the corner of Manchester Street and St Asaph Street, he spied a man on the roof of Whiting Motorcycles, Ltd. Nearby was a telephone box but readily in view of the roof-top prowler. Looking for some means of discreetly contacting the police station, Senior-Sergeant Kemp lengthened stride and came across a parked taxi. The driver was away momentarily uplifting a patron from a massage parlour.

Senior-Sergeant Kemp leapt in the front seat and summoned the taxi base on the radio-telephone. He gave details and asked for the information to be passed to the police control room. Meantime, the city’s taxi-drivers were not about to miss the action. Within minutes the area round the motor-cycle shop was sealed off — by taxis. It was clear the prowler was about to fare worst To cap his performance, he set off the burglar alarm just before his arrest