ROMANCE, NOT CRIME

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 March 1934, Page 9

ROMANCE, NOT CRIME

MUCH ADO ABOUT LITTLE. Peculiar behaviour by a man outside a Melbourne hospital early on a recent morning led to police patrol investigation and a surprising result. For more than a week a smart single-seater car had pulled up outside the hospital evejy morning at exactly 2.30. It remained several minutes, and on some occasions was driven away with nothing having happened. . On other occasions; the driver,,, a young man, after a short wait, walked 2uo yards down the street to a telephone box. After a conversation he had returned to his car and driven away. . , The unusual hour for a. telephone call and the Inexplicable action of the driver in leaving his car so far from the telephone booth prompted the police On the morning in question, a police squad arrived on the scene a few minutes before 2.30 a.nn, and constables took up suitable stations to observe the mysterious motorist’s movements. A big police car was in a nearby laiie rvady for emergency.

Sharp at 2.30 the strange car appeared and was drawn up to its usual position. A couple of minutes elapsed and the visit to the telephone was made. When the driver returned and restarted his car the policemen came out of the lane and, sweeping across the street, intercepted him. Whatever explanation was expected of the obviously embarrassed young man, that which was forth?coming must have been the last in the minds of the police party. The hour of his appearance each morning was explained by him as the time he finished his work. The position of his car so far from the telephone box was opposite a ward 1 in which his fiancee, who was a nurse, worked her nightly shift. And with diffidence the regular visits to the telephone were. explained. > It seemed that the nurse, if she was able, waved a kiss to him from the window at 2.30 a.m. each day. If she failed to appear at the window the modern Romeo found solace in the telephone talk with her. The police patrol had unearthed not a crime, but a romance.