Police briefs

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 9

Police briefs

Naked man in river A naked man seen cavorting in the Avon River was reported to the Christchurch police yesterday afternoon. The police searched the river in the Fendalton and Mona Vale area but found no trace of the man. The caller who reported the incident told the police the man has been seen in the river several times, although not always naked. Ambulance staff busy Four injury accidents within 70 minutes kept St John ambulance staff busy last evening. Two persons escaped with minor injuries when their car rolled over on Mairehau Road about 7.20 p.m. Just before 8 p.m. a woman suffered minor injuries when her car rolled over at the intersection of Blighs Road and Watford Street. A man was taken to hospital with moderate head injuries when involved in a two-car collision at the junction of McLeans Island Road and McArthurs Road at 8.11 p.m. A woman suffered moderate injuries when the car in which she was travelling struck a pole on Kidson Terrace just before 8.30 p.m. Exit ... head first PA Wellington A burglar attempting to get away from shops he had burgled in Naenae, Hutt Valley, came down a drainpipe ... headfirst. The police who arrested the man, aged 19, had to arrange first aid for his cuts to the head before locking him in cells on Saturday. Sergeant Mark Lammas said the Wainuiomata man broke into shops in the Naenae shopping area after leaving a party. He then tried to leave from the building’s third floor down a drainpipe. That proved to be his mistake. The man will appear in Lower Hutt District Court tomorrow charged with burglary. Classroom arson A fire that destroyed a classroom at the Kaiapoi Borough School early on Saturday is being treated as arson. The fire, which began between 1.30 a.m. and 2 a.m., also gutted the adjoining cloakrooms and toilets. The other classroom in the two-room block was smokedamaged. Man sleeping by rails A man seen lying close to the railway tracks at Papanui yesterday afternoon was reported to the police by a passing train driver. The man, who appeared intoxicated, was found and taken home. The police had earlier received a report of a man apparently unconscious in the nearby park on Sawyers Arms Road. Inspector Larry Reid said it appeared the man had been asleep in the park and then moved before falling asleep close to the railway line.