A DARING BURGLARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3829, 2 August 1927, Page 18

A DARING BURGLARY.

DRAPER’S SHOP RANSACKED. THIEVES OBTAIN LARGE HAUL. CHRISTCHURCH, July 29. A daring burglary took place some time last night at the shop of Mr S. A. Thomas, a draper, of 296 Lincoln road, when goods to the value of £7O were stolen. Entry was obtained by boring through a door with a brace and bit till a complete board was cut away. This was done to the back door of an adjoining shop in the same building, and then the thieves smashed a hole through the plaster board partition into Mr Thomas's shop and systematically went through his stock, selecting men’s apparel to the value stated, and making off with it.

Mr Thomas arrived at his shop at an early hour this morning and found the doors on to the street locked and untampered with; but the scene of confusion inside immediately told him what had happened in his absence. What the thieves had not-wanted was scattered all over the place. In the room at the back there was a large pile of cushecn, a material for filling mattresses. There had been four sacks, of this material in the room, and the marauders had evidently emptied one of them and used it to take away the “swag.” Owing to the way in which the burglary was carried out it is thought that there was more than one burglar, and that they used a motor ear in which to get away with their loot. The sack was found at the end of the building in the morning. Mr Thomas’s shop is one of the two or three comprising the first floor frontage of Dudney’s buildings. The thieves had effected their entrance from the back, and had first gone to work on the wrong door, which leads to no shop. This door had eighteen inches of two panels taken out of the top and bottom of the opening, showing the tell-tale marks of the brace and it. Then they attacked the door leading into the shop next to Mr Thomas’s, and removing two panels there and gaining an entrance, they proceeded -o smash their way through the plaster board into the draper's. They made their getaway through the front door of the shop into which they first broke—an empty one. This door was found open in the morning. The scene this morning was one of confusion. All parts of the shop had been ransacked, ami the haul included socks by the dozen, fifteen or sixteen pairs ot trousers, dozens of shirts, neckwear, and underclothing, and men's apparel of ail sorts ami sizes. OPERATIONS IN GISBORNE. TWO SHOPS ENTERED. (GISBORNE, July 29. The promises of Mr A. E. Beddow. cabinetmaker, and Messrs M’Keague and Co., grocers, were entered by burglars last night. So far as is known only some loose cash in Mr M’Kcague's shop was taken. About 2.30 a.m., a woman heard a motor car drive up and the smashing of glass. Entry in both places was effected through the breaking of windows.