A DARING BURGLARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 32

A DARING BURGLARY.

WENTWORTH TEA ROOMS ENTERED. An unusually daring anil impudent burglary was discovered in the city on the morning of August I. The safe of the Wentworth Tea Rooms was found to have been forced open and stripped of its contents. The operations of the burglars had been carried out sonic time between Saturday evening and yesterday morning, the safe, which contained £BO in cash, having been removed to the basement, where it was broken open and rifled. when the employees of the Wentworth Tea Rooms arrived to begin the day’s work.

One side of the safe was completely torn out. It weighs 3cwt, and is approximately oft in height, 2ft in width, and 2ft in depth : yet it had been carried from the upper floor of the building down a cramped, tortuous stairway scarcely more than 2ft wide. Chocolates had apparently also been taken from the shop by the burglars. Entry to the building had been gained through a back door leading from an underground alloy-way to the basement room, which is a small cellar under the tea rooms, lighted by electricity ami a narrow window protected by a grating, level with the pavement outside. From the cellar stairs the way to the shop above was clear. The AVcntworth Tea Rooms are situated in the Exchange (Building, at the intersection of High and Princes streets. On the northern side, between the buildings and the tramway ticket office is a small plot of shrubs through which leads an allej’-way to a basement billiard saloon beneath the Exchange. A few yards from the entrance to the saloon is the door leaning to the cellar under the tea rooms. Though large and weighty the safe offered but little resistance to the heavy tools which must have been used in tearing it open. Its side is constructed of two mild steel plates, each about a quarter of an inch in thickness, between which sawdust was packed. Two or more persons of considerable strength must have been associated in the effort of removing the safe to the cellar.

No implements or personal belongings were left behind, and the battered safe, together with a half-emptied chocolate box, were the only clues remaining for the detectives. A close investigation is being made.