GREEN CAR FOUND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22528, 7 January 1948, Page 4

GREEN CAR FOUND

SAFE THEFT LINK? BREAKDOWN ON COAST TWO PUNCTURED TYRES Events have moved fairly swiftly since the daring robbery was committed at the Royal Oak Hotel, Matawhero, at 4.30 a.m. on Sunday December 28. The proprietor, Mr W. Wilson, associated a green-coloured car with the removal of the hotel safe and about £9OO. A green-coloured car answering to the vague description given by Mr Wilson was found abandoned two days later half a mile on the Cape Runaway side of the Oweka Stream. It will be remembered that on the morning of December 28 Mr Wilson saw a green-coloured car backed into the entrance of his hotel. He thought it was someone wanting a room, but as he was making investigations from the balcony the car drove off at high speed down the highway towards Makaraka and Gisborne. Later it was found that the hotel had been entered through a bar-room window, the till rifled of £72 and the safe containing about £B3O and the safe taken out through the front entrance, apparently into the waiting car. The luggage compartment at the back of the car was open as the car was driven off. Through Borough in Daylight It would appear that the early morning visitors to the hotel drove through the borough by daylight to the previously reconnoitred gun-emplacement on Kaiti Hill, for it was there that the wreckage of the safe was found shortly after 10 o’clock the same morning. There they placed the charge through the key-hole of the safe and into the locking mechanism. They would be working against time and would feel secure m the magazine of the gunpit. The muffled noise of an explosion would disturb,no one, even if a larger charge than necessary were used. With the safe cracked and a good haul recovered, it was then apparently planned to motor north by way of the scenic highway, via East Cape, to Opotiki and probably beyond. Other routes would have made a further trip through the Gisborne Borough necessary and by then more people would be in the streets. The main road south would lead past the scene of the crime. Whether it was weak tyres or petrol . shortage which finally brought them to - a halt in the dash northwards is not known. When the car was recovered the petrol tank was empty. In addition, the two front tyres were flat. Mechanically the car was sound for it was driven back to Gisborne under its own power after two new tyres were secured to replace the damaged ones. There were some petrol cans in the back of the car. The car was recovered by the police in Gisborne following a report by Constable H. R. Godfrey, Te Araroa, giving a description of the vehicle.