TELEPHONE THEFTS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 10

TELEPHONE THEFTS

ESCAPES FROM POLICE.

.^What appears to be an organised gang of young men is at present operating in Wellington and j the suburbs. Telephone cash boxes have been rifled over a period of several weeks, and although one man has been convicted and sent to gaol for such an offence,, the thefts still continue. A, special watch kept by the police late on Saturday night, and early on Sunday morning resulted in a young man being caught tampering with, a telephone in Berhampore. He resisted the constable, whose hand was badly injured in the struggle, and,escaped in a motor-car.which was later found abandoned near; the Mount Cook Police Station.' About two shillings worth of pennies were found in the back of the car.

Late on Saturday night the Wellington police were notified that a car, the number of which was given, had been taken from Majoribanks street. A policeman in the Hutt Valley took_ the number of a car which moved swiftly away from a telephone box as he came near. An inspection of the telephone box showed that attempts had been made to break open the cash box. When it was ascertained that the number of the car seen at the Hutt corresponded with that of the car taken from_ Wellington detectives were immediately sent:to the Hutt Valley. It is believed, however, that the thieves made their way back to Wellington.