SAFE BLOWN

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 16, 20 January 1936, Page 10

SAFE BLOWN

WILLIS STREET SHOP

ROBBERS' POOR HAUL

Thieves forced an entrance into the butcher's shop of Mr. A. E. Preston in Willis Street during the weekend, jemmied the office open, and shattered the safe door with gelignite, to find inside only 25s in pennies. In another part of the shop they found small chanpe that brought their total haul up to £3 19s Gd. Perhaps it was to soothe their feelings that they brought up from the cooler a black pudding and ate half of it. The robbery took place between Saturday night at about 5 o'clock and this morning, presumably late on Saturday or Sunday night. A passage alongside the southern wall of the "Evening Post" building gives access to a yard from which the intruders climbed a stairway to the upper floor of the building, between "The Post" and Preston's. From the top of the stairs they stepped on to a roof which they crossed to the butcher's shop, above the backyard of which is wire netting. This was cut, and the robbers then had the run of the premises, except the office, the door of which, in full view of the street, they forced open with a jemmy. Judging from the condition of the office this morning the explosion which opened the stout safe was a severe one. The mechanism at the back of the safe door, which received the full force of the charge, was of course irreparably damaged. Flying fragments had left their marks on some wooden panelling in the office, and everything (except the remnants of the black pudding) was covered with dust.

Mr. Preston expressed the opinion to a "Post" reporter this morning that the robbery was committed by some person or persons who had an idea of the inside of the shop. Detectives were on the scene following the discovery of the damage, searching for fingerprints and other clues that might have been left by the perpetrators.