BURGLARY WELLINGTON.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 177, 29 July 1907, Page 5

BURGLARY WELLINGTON.

A SAFE BURST OPEN

FORTY POUNDS STOLEN

Indications that there were in Wellington some dangerous men skilled in housebreaking were given lately by several robberies which have taken place. But even the best informed .in criminal circles little imagined that a more desperate class of criminal was at largef Last evening (says Saturday's Post) at the fruit market of Messrs Laerv and Co. in Allen Street —a quiet, remote thoroughfare in the business part of the town near the Te Aro Railway Station — a large safe was dynamited, and as far as can be ascertained, about £40 in cash removed, ■ ■ :

The company has its head offices at the premises in question, which are of two storeys. The offices are upstairs, and in order to reach them the burglars scaled the roof of the adjoining works, broke a pano of glass out of the Tipper window sash, and pressed back the lock. This gave them access to a store, but in order to reach the offices in the front of fche store they had to overcome another obstacle in the shape of a locked door. There is evidence that an unsuccessful attempt had been made to shove the door in. The efforts, however,'in this direction were not very great, for the thieves changed their plan of operations byplacing some cases and sacks against the door, forcing in a fan-light over the doorway, and gaining access to the offices through the opening. The mischief was discovered this morning by the head storeman and Mr Mitchell, one of the managing directors. There was not the usual sacking and carpeting and so on apjjlied by the thieves to deaden the sound of blasting; the operation had been simply worked as though they were blasting in the open. The desks surrounding the safe were spattered with fragments from the explosion, dust was about one-sixteenth of an inch deep on the flat surfaces in the offices, and. an electric light lamp was broken; otherwise the office was just as it had been left on Friday night. • The safe was a large, double-dooii; one, described by an expert as one of the standard makes. To force it open, some very high explosive was dropped into the keyhole, a fuse applied to it, and then packed round with putty. The explosion shattered the bolt, bendingsteel plates, and tearing1 steel rivets in an amazing mariner. The lock, according to a locksmith, was; specially, designed to resist picking and bursting, and was so arranged that the parts when locked formed almost a solid piece of mechanism, with few crevices into which an explosive could be inserted. What he termed " a dead hard steel plate" formed the front of the lock. This had been inserted to prevent the lock being drilled, but even that had been blown in. Souvenirs of the visits were left in the shape of yards of fuse, caps, and other materials. , Mr W. Brown, manager for the firm, stated that the cash had been abstracted from boxes in the' safe. The firm always banked twice a day, and usually by three o'clock in the afternoon it had very little money about the premises. The amount in the safe on Friday night would have been very much less had it not been for a youth who takes money for cash sales. He retained his box (containing £25) for some time, and eventually sent it tip to the office.

- From the main office the thieves went into Mr Brown's office, evidently in further search of money. They prized open his desk, "went through" the drawers, but got little satisfaction there. In one of the compartments Mr Brown had several bottles of wine, and on an adjoining counter many boxes of cigars. But the intruders were not after those luxuries. They took a few cigars, but left the wine alone.