CRASHED THROUGH SKYLIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 22

CRASHED THROUGH SKYLIGHT

FLIGHT TO EVADE ARREST GAMBLER RISKS HIS LIFE GOBI FEAT IN PERILOUS POSITION [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, February 11. Risking his life in an effort to evade arrest, a man fled blindly from detectives who raided premises on the second floor of the arcade in the city to-night. He crashed through the glass cover over the ornamental skylight that spans the arcade, and then through the skylight itself, to hang by his hands 35ft above horrified crowds. The man then threw; himself backward and landed safely on the first floor balcony, recovered his balance, and disappeared. A raiding party arrested 26 men on gaming charges” after forcing its • way into a large room. The men were later charged before justices. Late shopping crowds thronged both entrances to the arcade, and a large force of uniformed police was necessary to keep the public from entering. The crashing of glass, followed immediately by a louder crash as a section of the leadlight that forms the ceiling of the arcade smashed on the concrete paving, startled pedestrians and shopkeepers. Fragments of glass rained down, and people in the vicinity .ran f° r shelter, some taking refuge in shop doorways. “I was at my desk writing when I heard a terrific crash,” said Mr P. Dv Kenny, outside whose premises a large piece of leadlight fell. “ I ran outside and heard another crash as I went through the doorway. I could see the legs and the body of a man projecting through the skylight. As the man oaine through the skylight, which gave under his weight, he managed to grab the two sides of the steel frame, which saved him from falling 30ft or, more to the concrete. He looked round, seeming perfectly cool, and then started to swing like a man on a trapeze. Onlookers feared that He would fall and be injured or perhaps killed. I called out to him to hangon and hot to attempt to jump. The pan looked down, and apparently realised for the first time how far he had to fall. He then started swinging again, and when he had gained enough impetus he hurled himself backward and over the railing of the first floor balcony, landing on his feet. The man recovered his balance. He then ran and disappeared.” Breaking their w;ay through two ■firmly-secured 1 doors, the detectives found 26 men in a room,from which the first man apparently escaped. The glass of a large window opening immediately above the skylight cover was gone from its frame, and it is believed that the man leaped straight through when the alarm was given. There was a gaping hole in the skylight cover through which he had fallen, and about 2ft below; was the skylight along which he attempted to crawl.