A FUGITIVE

Hokitika Guardian, 19 May 1937, Page 6

A FUGITIVE

SWIMS A RIVER. SHARK-INFESTED WATERS. SYDNEY, May 14. Eluding three policemen, who chased him in daylight, a man dived into the shark-infested Parramatta River, took off all his clothes except a singlet, swam 600 yards across Iron Cove and escaped after leaping fences. He disappeared so suddenly that the police who were hot on his heels could not tell how he evaded them. Detective Lane, Sergeant Hancock and Constable Lulham, ex-Rugby Union footballer, were in Five Dock police station when a man telephoned that someone was breaking into a house about 50 yards from the Parramatta River at Five Dock. He could not give them the exact location, but when the three police appeared in Nield Avenue, a man ran off. The police gave chase and the stranger darted toward the shark-in-fested river and dived in. He wits a powerful swimmer. Fifty yards from the shore he turned toward the police and saw that Constable racing another direction, where he knew that lie could cross a small bridge over a canal more than half t, mile away. Treading wafer the man stripped off his coat, shift and trousers, and then liis shoes. Hancock and Lane separated to prevent the man from landing on the Five Dock stcre of Hon Cove.

The fugitive, freed from the weight of his clothes, commenced to swim quickly. His speed in the water amazed the police, who said that he maintained the same rate over the whole of the distance. Constable Lulham, too, had been fast. He had run more than a mile, but was only 100 yards away when the stranger scrambled ashore*. The man leaped over rocks, darted behind Jantana, and out-distanced Lulham who is a fast runner.

Although almost nude, the suspect' ran into the street and disappeared. The police later learned that an attempt had been made to enter a house' in Nield Avenue.