SEVERAL PLACES ENTERED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 118, 14 November 1929, Page 19

SEVERAL PLACES ENTERED

HOUSE SET ON FIXE (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") CHRISTCHUItCH, This Day. The home of Mr. S. D. Wallis, 53, Fifield terrace, Opawa, was ransacked by burglars last Saturday evening and clothes and cash to the extent of £50 in all were stolen. On the same evening the thieves visited the confectionery shop of Mrs. : A. E. Phillips, Wilson's road, where sopie of the goods stolen from Mr. Wallis !s were left behind. Mr. Wallis and his wife went to the theatre that evening, and on their returu at about 11 p.m. they found that the whole house had been ransacked. .Every drawer and cupboard had been broken into and the less valuable of the contents thrown about. About £6 in cash was taken. Several bundles of clothes were left lying about, which leads to the belief that the thieves were surprised before they could complete their work. Mr. Wallis states that there are plenty of hiding-places in his grounds.

The thieves . entered through the dining-room window, which" \v;is found open. All the doors and windows had been opened, presumably so that a quick get-away couia be made.

At Mrs. Phillips's shop the thieves entered by the. back window. Candles were lit, as they were evidently not equipped with torches, and cakes taken -from the shop were eaten in a back room of the shop, to which there are no living-rooms attached. It would appear that they spent some time there. Mrs. Phillips has been unable to judge what actually was taken from the shop, as goods could be removed from the shelves without her noticing any difference in the stock. Several articles of attire- were found in the back yard the next day, a part of the clothing taken from Mr. Wallis's'.

After ransacking a house at 64, Antigua street South, owned and occupied by Mr. E. J. Bell, paperhanger and painter, at about 9.30 last evening, burglars set the_ house on fire. The fire brigade's quick turn-out practically confined the blaze to the kitchenette, where it .started. Mr. and Mrs. Bell were both out visiting friends, and no fires had been left in the house. The beds had been upset and the bedclothes strewn about; cupboards had been opened and the wardrobes searched. There was a small safe in the kitchen, but this had not been opened. As far as could be found nothing of value had been stolen. Apparently the burglars had got into the house through a window opening on to a motor drive, which was found open. The building was insured for £750, the paperhanging stock for £250, and the contents of the house for £.200, all in the A. P \ Office.