AN EMPTY CRIB.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 118, 24 June 1914, Page 5

AN EMPTY CRIB.

BOOTMAKER'S SHOP ENTERED. BUT NOTHING TAKEN.

A burglary, which fortunately proved abortive, was effected in the city last night or early this' morning, when the shop of Mr F. H. Seemens, bootmaker, in Colombo Street, was broken into. Mr Seemens left his shop at six o'clock last evening, locking the front door and bolting it on the inside. When he returned to work about 8.45 this morning, not suspecting that his premises had been the objective of some night maurauder, he found the doors of the inner apartments standing wide open, and he proceeded to investigate. THE FIRST TRY. The or thieves (Mr Seemens is of the.opinion that there were two at work), effected their entrance at the back, coming evidently from the right-of-way which runs past the building from Kilmore Street. At the rear of the shop is a tin shed, in which at the present time is stored a quantity of old timber, and upon this the burglar clambered in an endeavour to effect his entrance through a loft. AN ENTRANCE EFFECTED.

The manner in which the thieves went to work denotes that they had been spying out the land beforehand. At the back of the workshop is another room used for keeping lumber. This has a window at the back, the bottom pane barred on the inside with wood, while both sashes were fixed by nails driven into the woodwork. This was no obstacle. One of the bottom squares was broken, and by this means the window was unlatched and the nails withdrawn. All that theu remained to be done was to draw down the top sash and clamber in. No lights were carried by the thieves, as the window had not been pulled down to its full extent, owing to a bottle of ink, which had been on the middle sash, getting caught by the descending woodwork. It could easily have been removed had the thieves known its nature. However, a space wide enough to allow ingress had been made, and the first part of the task had been accomplished. A TIGHT SQUEEZE.

This lumber room is separated from the workshop by a partition, into which is let a sliding pane of glass about 14 inches square. There is also a wooden door opening into the shop, which was bolted. By standing on a gas stove, the intruder was enabled to push the glass up, leaving a small opening to squeeze through. However, lie must have got through somehow, and then he was at his desired goal.

AN EMPTY CRIB

But all his trouble had been in vain. Mr Seemens is in the habit of keeping his takings in a small cash box in a drawer under the counter, but he never leaves any money in the shop overnight. It must have been a sore disappointment for the burglar after all his labours. Money alone was what he sought, for no attempt was made to commandeer any of the stock-in-trade. Realising that he had cracked an empty crib, the man unbolted the middle door, leaving it open, and departed quietly with his confederate if he had one through the back entrance, which he also left open. Mr Seemens was thunderstruck when he discovered the traces of the raid this morning. "What induced them to visit me," he said. "I can't understand, probably" (in a tone of irony) "because I have had a pound or thirty shillings in the shop. However, they got nothing, and I suppose I must be glad they took nobody's boots away in revenge." Mr Seemens explained that his business was not of large dimensions, which made the attempted theft all the harder to understand. NO CLUE AS YET. Mr Seemens communicated with the police, but as yet no clue has been obtained as to the identity of the burglars.