“CASH” BURGLAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 2

“CASH” BURGLAR.

RAIDS AT EPSOM

£32 TAKEN FROM ONE HOUSE.

AUCKLAND, Sept. 23. For some months past on the night before a race meeting a house burglar has made raids in Auckland. He has visited practically all the suburbs. On Friday night he was in Epsom, entering two houses and stealing £32 in bank notes from one. It has been noted by the police that this silent burgler usually enters homes between the hours of 2 and 4 o’clock in the morning, when the occupants are more soundly 7 asleep than at any other period, and also that he never fails to select a house that will yield a substantial haul of money. Identifiable valuables, such as jewellery, he scorns. Between 2 o’clock and 2.45 on Saturday morning he entered the large home of Mr Andrew Craig, of Wapiti Avenue, visited three bedrooms without disturbing the sleeping occupants, and departed with £32 in notes. The burglary was not discovered until 8.30 in the morning. At that hour Mrs Craig went to the rear of the house and noticed that her son’s dress trousers were lying near the back door on the steps. An examination of the house was nuvde. Mrs Craig, suspecting that an intruder had entered, went to a wardrobe in iter bedroom, where she had left a handbag containing £32 in bank notes, four of them being £5 notes. She found the bag in its usual position, but the money had been extracted.

The burglar had entered her bedroom and opened the wardrobe without awakening either Mr Craig or herself. He had also taken a tobacco pouch which was lying on a table only a few inches front Mr Craig’s head. No doubt the -thief at first took this to be a wallet. It was found later on the floor.

From a wardrobe on the porch, where Mr Norman Craig slept, the burglar took a pair of dress trousers and also the £1 15s which was in the hip pocket. The burglary was evidently carried out between 2 a.m. and 2.45 a.m. Miss Edna Craig arrived home shortly after 1 a.m. and did not go to sleep until about two o’clock. Everything was all right at that hour. However, she was awakened at 2.45 a.m. when her father switched on the light in his bedroom. Miss Craig then noticed that her bedroom door was wide open. She later found that two handbags, which she had kept in a drawer, had been thoroughly searched for money. Another handbag containing almost £2, which die had placed behind a dressing table was intact, the burglar failing to notice it.

Evidence of the preparations made by the burglar when lie enteerd the back door was shown by the fact that he had taken an old coat from the passage and had placed it. against the door to ensure that it would remain open and provide a quick exit in case he was disturbed. The bedroom windows were also opened.