SAFE BLOWN OPEN

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 99, 21 January 1936, Page 11

SAFE BLOWN OPEN

Little Money Found In Willis Street Shop

ENTRY MADE FROM BACK

Thieves made a particularly daring entry to the Willis Street premises of A E. Preston Ltd., butchers, late on Sunday night. A floor safe in the office was broken open with gelignite and about £4/0/2 in small change was taken from it and another part of the shop. Then the thieves apparently went into the freezer and selected a black sausage from tlie small goods there to eat iu the privacy of the office, a- ledge above the safe being used as a table.

Ou the north side of the shop, which is by the tram stop almost opposite Mercer Street, are a cafetaria and a tobacconist’s. Alongside the latter shop runs a very narrow passage which opens out at the rear of the three premises. The thieves used this alleyway to come behind the butcher’s shop, which opens out into a concrete yard that lias been -converted into a cool porch by the erection of a wirenetting roof, about 10 feet up from the ground. The thieves climbed up to the roof alongside the passage, stepped over the roofs to Preston’s, cut a hole in the wire-netting, and dropped down into the porch. Entry to the shop proper was then easy, for the back'door is always left open in order to keep the premises cool and well-aired. But tlie door to the private office, at the righthand corner of the shop, was locked. This door was burst open with a jemmy, the lock coming right away from the wood. The safe stood immediately inside the door, to the left. The door and inner door were ripped off with gelignite, the effect of the explosion being powerful enough to drive a small hole right through the left wall into the room leading from the shop to the porch and to chip tlie plaster of the other wall. But the explosion, though it disturbed the articles near the safe, was cleverly made, accomplishing the purpose without danger to the safe-breakers. Inside the safe were a few ledgers and some small change which bad been left there, after the ordinary takings had been withdrawn on Saturday, for use yesterday morning when the shop wag opened. The tilt in the shop itself was empty.

Then the freezer was raided and a choice made from the collection of small goods. The black sausage was selected after several other articles had been tried with the teeth and it was taken back to tlie office for consumption. The final exit from the shop was made through the hole in the netting.