ATTEMPTED BURGLARY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 307, 11 December 1931, Page 10

ATTEMPTED BURGLARY

TWO MBN SURPRISED. CHASE AND A TUSSLE. Christchurch, December 9. A chase of two would-be burglars and a pursuer’s tussle with one prp. vided excitement in Victoria Street, Christchurch, at a few minutes before midnight last night. The place singled out b the thieves was the shop of A. K. Phillips, tobacconist, but fortunately the Phillips family had retired to bed but a few moments before, and the efforts of the two men to open the front door of the shop were heard by the family upstairs. Mr Phillips’s younger son donned a few clothes and went down to the front door, on the outside of which the men were still operating. The young man threw open the door and gave chase to the two men, who quickly bolted. Mr Phillips caught hold of the older of the two, who turned round and threw the purusuer to the ground, and then ran into a side street. The services of a passing taxi were enlisted, but the two men, one of whom was described as a youth of 18, had escaped. The shouts of the pursuer attracted the attention of a reporter who was walking up the Papanui road. He returned post haste and discovered a parcel lying on the footpath in front of Mr Phillipa’s shop. It was handed to a policeman, who had arrived on the scene, and was found to contain a pair of leather gloves and an electric torch evidently the property of the The attempted burglary of Mr Phillipa’« Shop is th« third that has taken place in victoria street thia week, but in no case have the thieves been sue ceseful in effecting entries.