POLICE AND BANDITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 4

POLICE AND BANDITS.

CHASE IN GERMANY. CIGAR LIGHTER A CLUE. Many a detective film lacks the breathless interest of' the pursuit of the two motor bandits who’ were brought to bay near Potsdam, Germany, recently, after a flight halfway across Germany. It was discovered at Wurzburg that thieves had melted open the safe of a department store and carried off the entire takings of the two preceding days,; a sum equal to nearly £2OOO. The only clue they left behind was & cigar lighter presented to his guests during the Christmas season by the owner of a Berlin wine restaurant. This trifle suggested that the thieves had come from Berlin and would return thither. Accordingly the police telephoned to all the chief places between Berlin and Wurzburg asking that a sharp watch should be kept for suspicious motorists. Several towns could only report that a car, believed to be that of the robbers, had already passed. Later in the afternoon, however, Wittenburg, one of the few places where there is a road bridge over the Lower Elbe, announced that two men with a sack and a couple of heavy portfolios had arrived in'a hired motor, which they had sent back to Wurzburg, and had taken another to convey them to Berlin. The next town on the route with an adequate police _ force was Potsdam. It was rung up without a moment’s delay, and it sent out a patrol to block the Wittenburg road outside the town. The patrol was just in the nick of time. A couple of minutes after it had occupied its post a car came along the little-frequented highway. Shots were fired in the air by the police to leave no doubt as to the earnestness of their summons to stop, and the chauffeur, who, of course, was ignorant of the character of his passengers, pulled up sharply. The men in the vehicle were too much surprised by this sudden development to attempt to escape, and a careful examination of their luggage placed beyond doubt that they were the plunderers of the Wurzburg stores. The sack was stuffed with bank notes, and the portfolios were heavily weighted with silver coins.