Detective Chases Burglar Over Roof-tops

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 208, 2 September 1943, Page 4

Detective Chases Burglar Over Roof-tops

An exciting chase over roof-tops iu the darkness occurred iu Broadway a few minutes after 10 o'clock on Tuesday night, when an intruder was found iu Messrs. Colliuson aud Cunninghame \s premises. Despite strenuous endeavours by Detective W. Roddick, the intruder got away. Mr. Keith Colliuson had gone to Hie premises to secure his bicycle and lie found that the back door hail been forced with a pick, a panel being broken. The police were informed aud the detective and Constable Hickey arrived. While they were at tho back door, sounds were heard iusido. The detective moved into the shop and as he did so he noticed a suspicious shape on stairs at the back of the promises, and went in pursuit. The intruder then leaped from a small balcony, across a gap three or four feet wide, over a parapet, and dropped about 12ft. ou to the roof of Messrs. Collinson and boa's premises next door. The detective continued the chase and this led him across the roof-tons as far as the Regent Theatre. A skylight had been broken en route by the bunted man, while he also broke several groups of wires, including those which control the operating room iu the Regent Theatre, and the programme was interrupted for a short time. A drop of some distance to the too£ of a building alongside the theatre provided the way for the escape. Nothing is missing from the premises of Messrs. Collinson and Cunninghame, Ltd., but some minor damage was done. A raincoat had been tried on and discarded and other men's articles pulled about. A puzzling discovery was a broken length of the tubing which carries the cash containers from the various departments. A number of these tubes are suspended a foot or two from the ceiling of the shop and one of the centre sections was broken. In addition, an electric light suspended three feet from the ceiling was broken off.