“RUN OUT OF PETROL"

Evening Star, Issue 19318, 3 August 1926, Page 5

“RUN OUT OF PETROL"

CAR CONVERTER'S BUFF GETAWAY AFTER LONG TRIP. “ Just run out of petrol; will be bsdj in five minutes.” While the curious looked at tins notice on the scat of a two-seater Moj> ris-Cowlcy car by the roadside on the Bower Portobello road yesterday, the “owner” was making a clean break from the car, ami ho was surely chuckling at his bluff. The two-sealer, a sporty little car, was not. his. Its real owner, Mr J. 1L M‘Donald, wa s in Invercargill, worrying over the loss of his car. The car was removed on Sunday from Invercargill, and the man must have travelled all night, at some speed, too, for one. of 'the .springs was broken. The gas supply was exhausted when ho was driving along the Lower Portobello road, just below Sir London Ferguson’s residence. To leave a car abandoned at 10 a.m. would ho calling for suspicion, so the driver left the notice prominently displayed. It was read by a number of passers-by, but they did not take any notice, believing that the owner had gono away for petrol.

But the bluff did not last. At 7 p.m. mein hors of one family discussed the unusual sight of a car being left unattended by the roadside, and then it was related that the car had been seen at 10 a.m. The police were informed, but by that time the converted; was probably miles away.