TWO-YEAR MYSTERY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 2

TWO-YEAR MYSTERY

MISSING MOTOR-CYCLE CHRISTCHURCH THEFT PATIENT POLICE WORK Two years Of patient work and painstaking endeavour by detectives throughout New Zealand have borne fruit, and it is'now possible that the Heathcote County Council will discover the fate of a new motor-cycle which it bought in 1937 for the traffic inspector, Mr. A. J. Tait, and which was stolen on the night of September 10, in the same year.* The police bereve that they have identified the maehine-rit was dragdeg out of Auckland harbour on May 22 last— and a young man appeared recently in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court and was charged with the theft. Like elephants, apparently, detectives never forget, and though everybody else, except Mr. Tait and the council, had forgotten the theft, the police proceeded with their inquiries. These led to investigation throughout the Dominion. The inquiry into the missing motorcycle was revived when detectives concluded their work on other cases indirectly connected with it, and the machinery of the law was set in motion. Backyard Dug Up This involved the digging up and combing of a backyard in Christchurch and the discovery, among a large assortment of articles a motor-cycle number plate and rear mudguard. The plate and mudguard had been subjected to great heat and were crumpled and bent. They were straightened out by further heating and the plate was recognised as a 1937 one through the particular mark used to divide the five numbers. The numbers themselves were brought up in photographs and the numerals — 22-103 —were recognisable as those of the stolen machine. Turning their attention to the mudguard, the police noted a peculiar alteration to it. The alteration had been made by a city workman to enable a siren to be fitted. The workman definitely identified the guard as belonging to Mr. Tait’s machine. The inquiries hung fire until some time ago, when a boy, who was out fishing, saw a machine in thq_Auckland Harbour. The motor-cycle was recovered and the police, not being able to' identify it, sent descriptive circulars out to other New Zealand stations. Substitution of Parts The Christchurch police, their interest aroused by the make of the machine, took up the inquiry again, and they now believe they have discovered the missing motor-cycle. It was discovered that, at the time the machine had gone into the harbour, another machine had been stolen in Auckland.

Despite the substitution of parts, the machine was recognised. When stolen, the motor-cycle was valued at £137, but it was sold in Auckland recently for about £9.

The machine was stolen after the doors of the garage at Mr. Tait’s residence had been forced some. time about midnight. The council was not a loser as the machine was insured, but another interesting factor in the ease is 'that, just before the machine was stolen, an anonymous person rang up the council foreman, asking where Mr. Tait lived.