SMART ARRESTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 14

SMART ARRESTS

INTRUDERS IN A STOBE

NOISE AROUSES MANAGER GUARD KEPT WITH RIFLE [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] PAEROA, Friday The prompt action of a storekeeper armed with a rifle Tras responsible for the arrest of two men in the store at Kerepeehi shortly after one o'clock this • morning. < The manager of the store, Mr. Robert Collins, was awakened about one o'clock by a noise in the shop, which adjoins his living quarter's. Ho called his son and they found a ear outside the shop. Mr. Collins mounted guard .outside the shop armed with a rifle, while his son summoned. Constable J. McC'linchy. When the constable arrived they opened the front door and switched on /the light. As they entered, a man sprang up from behind the counter brandishing an iron bar. When the constable approached he slipped through into a storeroom, banging the ,

door behind him. Mr. Collins and the constable forced open the door and saw a man fall over a bicycle as he endeavoured to escape through a window.

The constable called upon the man to stop and the fugitive then dropped his iron bar. While the constable was searching the captive, Mr. Collins discovered another man hiding behind the office door and covered him with the rifle.

Subsequently, two men, Donald McKenzie, aged 36, a seaman,, and William Watson, aged 38, both of Auckland, appeared before Mr. W. H. Freeman, S.M., in the Paeroa Police Court, charged with breaking and entering by night and theft. The accused were remanded for a week.