Weraroa Boys in Stolen Cars

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 22, 27 January 1942, Page 8

Weraroa Boys in Stolen Cars

WANGANUI, Jan. 25. Having been caught by three policemen while resting near Waitotara after abandoning the last of the motor-cars they had stolen, four escapees from the Weraroa training farm appeared in the Children’s Court, Wanganui, yesterday. They faced seven charges involving the theft of five motor-cars, petrol, foodstuffs, and fishing gear. The two older escapees were sentenced to three years’ detention in a Borstal institution and the others were sent back to the training farm. The escape from Weraroa was made on January 17, the party going to Manakau and there stealing a car in which the four travelled to Wellington. There they stole another car and, going north, broke open a petrol station. South of Hastings a bach was broken into and chocolates and biscuits and a tent stolen. The boys then turned inland and between Wairakei and Taupo ran out of petrol and so abandoned the car in which they were travelling and returned to Taupo. The third car was stolen there, and the party drove to Tirau, where a taxi was commandeered, and a journey down the west coast begun. South of Waitara the boys stole the number plates from a car and fitted them to the stolen taxi. The taxi was abandoned in Mokoi, in South Taranaki, and a largo car was stolen .from Hawera. In Patea they tried to brea/c. open a petrol station but were disturbed and continued south till they ran out of petrol about one mile and a-half from Waitotara.