THREE CITY BURGLARIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22578, 17 November 1936, Page 8

THREE CITY BURGLARIES

BAPTIST CHURCH ENTERED SUBSTANTIAL SUM TAKEN Three burglaries, including the blowing open of the safe in the office of the Baptist Tabernacle in Upper Queen Street, were committed in the city on Sunday night. A fairly substantial sum was taken from the church safe, which was blown to pieces by a heavy charge of gelignite that hurled the safe door about eight feet and some parts of the safe through a plaster wall. About £lO worth of tools was stolen from B. Brennan and Company, Limited, toolmakers and gearcutters, in Cleave Avenue. At the scene of the third burglary, the office of the British United Shoe Machinery Company's office, in Cook Street, nothing of value was taken.

The caretaker of the Baptist Tabernacle, Mr. A. Ferneyhough, who lives in a house immediately behind the church, did not hear the explosion. He knew nothing of it until he went to open the church at seven o'clock yesterday morning and found several safe-trays lying near the side door opening on to the church yard, while the side door, usually locked, was ajar. When he reached the office on the same floor he found it in disorder, and the safe blown from the pedestal on which it had stood. Cushions and a tablecloth taken from the ladies' lounge and large pieces of felt from the basement were used by the thieves to deaden the noise of the explosion. The thieves were careful to switch off the power at the main switch before they began their work. The suggestion is that they hid in an ante-room immediately after the service and waited until the church was locked. They smashed the glass panels of two locked doors, which barred their way to the office, and turned the "locks from the inside. Once they had blown open the safe, all they had to do was to open the side door and walk out. Brennan and Company's premises in Cleave Avenue were entered by the smashing of a window in the front of the building, from which tools were taken. Similar measures were adopted at the back of the British United Shoe Machinery Company's building in Cook Street.