GANG OF THIEVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 March 1930, Page 2

GANG OF THIEVES

TERRORISES FARMERS. PERTH, March 13. For some weeks stores throughout the country districts have been broken into by a gang of thieves who travelled thousands of miles through the country in tsolen motor cars. Following upon the arrest of one man near Perth, after an exciting chase by a police motor patrol early on Monday morning, two detectives on . Wednesday visited a cottage near Coolup, where a young farmer - and his father, who had been terrorised by the gang, had allowed their home to be used as a depot for stolen goods. About 3 o’clock this morning two members of the gang arrived at the hut, and were surprised by the detectives, who were in hiding. They promptly took to their heels, but subsequently a young man was arrested on a charge of vagrancy. Shots were fired by one of the detectives w as he chased the other man, who, however, escaped, and has since eluded the efforts of blacktrackers to locate him. He is believed to be identical with a well-known criminal, who, in 1925, escaped from custody at Rottnest Island by swimming 12 miles throiigh sharkinfested waters to the mainland.