SAFE-BLOWERS AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 636, 12 April 1929, Page 1

SAFE-BLOWERS AGAIN

Newton Factory Robbed

EXPLOSION HEARD BY CARRIER USING a charge of gelignite thieves blew open the safe in the office of Robinson's Ice Cream Co., Ltd., in Newton, last night. The sunt of £ls in notes and silver was stolen as well as a cash box containing a small amount of coin. It is estimated that another £ls worth of damage was done to the safe, which will require a new door.

THE gelignite had been carefully 1 packed in the keyhble of the lock aß d a large quantity of papers and oßce baskets had been placed -gainst the door, evidently In an effort To deaden the sound of tiie explosion. About 1.15 o’clock this morning Mr. Gus Paul, a carrier who lives near the factory, returned to his home after delivering late supplies of meat to various city suops. Soon afterwards he heard a noise which sounded to him like an explosion or a motor-car collision. Mr. Paul thought to himself, "Somebody has blown Robinson’s safe.” He walked round the building while a companion kept watch at the corner of Waima and Putiki Streets. However, neither of them saw anything and there did not appear to be anyone in the office. Had Mr. Paul thought to test a small iron grill which opened

into the factory from Waima Street he would have found the lock missing, and probably the safe blowers hiding in the office up a flight of stairs only a few yards away. The intruders had filed the lock off the grill door leading into the factory and climbed the stairs to the office, where the safe is situated in a sheltered corner. Mr. E. Robinson, manager of the company, stated this morning that probably the intruders had thought that the money for to-day’s wages had been drawn and kept in the safe for to-day. However, that was not so. Nothing in the safe except the cash had been touched. One of the firm’s drivers, when he arrived for his books and orders this morning at 5.30 o’clock, noticed the mass of papers on the office floor, and immediately rang the police, who are investigating.