ATTEMPT ON SAFE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 36, 11 August 1930, Page 16

ATTEMPT ON SAFE

BURGLARS IN AYAREHOUSE

A daring but unsuccessful attempt to blow open the safe of G. F. Browne's Furnishing Warehouse in Courtenuy place, occurred some timebetween Friday night and Saturday morning. i

Detonators and fuses were used by the burglars, but a hitch must have occurred, for no explosion took place, the -fuse merely scorching the inside of the safe. It is thought that the intruders might have been disturbed, as no further attempt was made to open the safe.

The s;ifc, which contained about £4 in silver and the ledger books of the business, weighs five hundredweight, and was removed from the office, which is twenty feet from the front door,'to the rear of the warehouse, about ninety feet away. Marks on the safe showed that an unsuccessful effort had been, made with a hacksaw to free the door When this failed, the burglars sawed a coiner off the safe—the steel of which was an inch thick —leaving an aperture about an inch square, which was just large enough to insert a fuse and detonator. The explosion, however, did not take place, the fuse going out before it reached the detonator. • How entranco was gained to the building remains a mystery, for there was no evidence to show that the intruders had forced an entry. All windows and doors were exactly the same as they had been left the night before, securely locked. It is thought that the burglars used a skeleton key, or took advantage of the late shopping night on ividay, and hid somewhere in the building. ' When Mr. Br'oivne' left the premises at a quarter to ten cm Friday night he took with him the- k".ya of the office and the safe. His son left a quarter of ■an hour later, pulling the door behind him, thus automatically locking it. The day's takings were removed from the safe by Mr. Browne just before he left on Friday night. An inspection of the premises on Saturday, morning showed that, apart from the damage to the safe, nothing else was taken or damaged.