SAFE CRACKER AT WORK

Evening Star, Issue 25716, 13 February 1946, Page 8

SAFE CRACKER AT WORK

£4OO FOR THE OPENING CONSTABLE'S BULL'S EYE SURPRISES BURGLAR (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 12. A burglar was just in the act of taking a shop safe, containing over £4OO in cash, out to the back premises of Boots, Ltd, chemists; of 58 Willis street, early last Saturday morning when he was surprised by the flashing of a police lamp on the front doors. The safe had been placed on a trolly and the intruder was about to wheel it away. <

Admission to the building was gained by the thief hy scaling a 15ft creeperclad wall facing on to the Waitangi Private Hotel at the back, where Boots building faces into the hillside. This climb put him on the roof of the four-story building. That he must have been armed with some type of wrecking bar was shown by the fact that he forced the three locks of an door leading off the roof. Ragged marks in the iron show his handiwork. Once in the building he had access to all the floors, which are mainly used as storage space by [Boots'. On his way to the shop 'below he passed by one other safe and the strongroom. The safe which attracted the burglar's attention "was placed beneath the counter in the middle of the shop and was about tlrree cubic feet in size. Apparently some difficulty _ was experienced hy the intruder in getting the safe from behind the counter out into the body of the shop. He found it necessary to wheel it down the 'back of the counter toward the front door, and it was-just as he was turning out into the shop near the main door that the constable on beat duty shone his light into the building. The constable heard a scuffling sound inside, and when he shone his torch through the door he saw the safe on the trollv and heard running steps inside the building. Almost immediately the police surrounded the building, but . no arrest was made. A fu6e and two detonators were found, and it is thought that the burglar intended to wheel the safe to the rear of the 6hop and blow it open there. The police have issued a warning that with Saturday closing and the long week-end no money should be left in shop registers or safes.