EXCITING CHASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 19

EXCITING CHASE.

ALLEGED SYDNEY THIEVES. POLICEMAN WOUNDED. After a thrilling chase through a factory in Svdncy. during which several shots were fired at alleged fugitive thieves, and a detective was struck on the head with a jemmy, police arrested a man late cine night recently. The policeman was later treated at Sydney Hospital for a large wound in his head. Ho had to bo taken home by a police car ai'ier having stitches inserted in the wound. Two of the alleged thieves escaped. A third man was arrested, and charges of having stolen £4OO worth of clothing, of having maliciously wounded DetectiveSergeant Hayes, and having a razor blade in his possession were preferred against him. Mr. 11. K. Robinson, clothing manufacturer, reported to the police that his factory had been entered. Accompanied by Detective Jones, Detective-Sergeant Hayes hurried to the factory. The office on the ground floor had been ransacked. The office safe had been burst open and the floor was littered with papers. While inspecting the office Sergeant Hayes heard footsteps overhead. He raced up the darkened stairs, with his revolver drawn. As he neared the landing ho was struck on the head with a jemmy that had been hurled with considerable force over tho balustrade. Ho fell to tho stairway. Regaining his feet, ho fired several shots at three men, whose figures he could see silhouetted against an open window. None took effect.

The men jumped through the window on to the roof and hurried off in different. directions. In the meantime Detective Jones and Mr. Kohinson had reached tho roof, and they gave, chase. Several more shots wero fired after the fugitives. Two of (he men disappeared. Tho third jumped across lo the roof of the adjoining building with the police in hot pursuit. Then he jumped about SOl't.. on to the roof of another lower building. Sergeant Hayes in the meantime had rung the police station for reinforcements, and a car-load of police was rushed to the scene. The factory was surrounded, but two of the men had made good their escape. A third man was found in an outhouse. He was arrested. On searching the building the police found that about. £4OO worth of clothing had been placed ill chaff bags ready for removal. Detective-Sergeant Jlayes, who was bleeding profusely from a wound in his forehead, was taken to a hospital.