MISSING MONEY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 August 1924, Page 8

MISSING MONEY.

VANISHED IN THE AIR. A DUNEDIN SENSATION. A mystery .with more than a tinge of sensationalism about it, and one that would surely test the sleuthing prowess of a Sherlock Holmes, is at present engaging the attention of the Dunedin detective force (states the Wellington Post’s correspondent). The story opens with the lodging of a bag containing notes and cheques of a-total value of about £7OO with the National Bank at 1 p.m. on Saturday last. The money, which represented the previous day s takings of the Dunedin branch of the D.1.C., was entrusted to one of the senior clerks of the firm, who was thoroughly conversant with the procedure. It is understood that the D.1.C., like a number of other business houses, places the takings in the bank temporarily for safe custody, for which the bank does not accept liability. It is stated that the bag was taken charge of by a junior clerk in the bank, and placed in. one of the strong-rooms in which the ledgers are kept. This is the usual practice in suck cases, and on Saturday the bag, which is a special one lor the purpose, and locked, was banded over to* the bank clerk and placed in the room. There is a. tin trunk in the room, in which the bags are generally locked, but the bank official ns understood not to have had a, key, and so be placed official was the last one to ' handle it, and he shortly afterwards left the premises, leaving the strongroom unlocked. The work of locking the strongroom is generally entrusted to the caretaker, but he was absent on leave on this occasion. However, there was a senior teller, who resides on the premises, throughout the afternoon, and the strongroom was eventually looked at 3^45-p.m. During the afternoon the caretaker'« wife and another woman were cleaning out the offices. The strongroom was opened again at about 5 30 p.m.. when the takings from Caris: brook were placed there by the resident teller, hut it is stated that he did not- notice if the D.I.C. bag was there at the time.

The next epis_o<le in the baffling drama was when a clerk from the D.I.C. visited the bank on Monday morning in order to obtain possession of the money. It was then discovered that the bag had disappeared, but at the time it was considered likely that it had been misplaced or taken to the vaults below. An exhaustive search, however, proved fruitless, and so far there is no hint of what has happened to it, and it seems to have vanished into thin air. So far as can be gathered, there was no stranger on the bank’s from closing time until 'late in the afternoon. There is no suggestion that any entrance was effected'!'"whilst the lock of the strongroom in which the - bag was placed shows no signs of having been tampered with. °