THRILLING CHASE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1929, Page 7

THRILLING CHASE

MOTOR THIEF PURSUED.

STRATEGY LEADS TO ARRESTS.

Auckland, July 24.

Mr. J. S. Freer, secretary of the Eden Chamber of Commerce, left his car parked in the city at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon and a few minutes later he returned to find it gone. Less than four and a half hours later Mr. Freer was in Symonds Street bound for the city in a car driven by Mr. Shepherd. Every car they passed Mr. Freer gave a searching glance,, hoping by some lucky chance to see his own. Two men were travelling down Symonds Street when Mr. Freer said with excitement: “There she is, right ahead.” “Are you sure?” asked Mr. Shepherd, who was at the wheel. “Yes; 11-866, that’s my number.” The chase was on. Two hundred yards ahead the driver of the other car little knew that he had been seen and the owner was in hot pursuit, but he was travelling fast and the pursuing car lost ground at a tram stop above Grafton Bridge. They chased on down Symonds Street, the fugitive being in clear view right, ahead. To overtake the stolen car in a straight-out chase Mr. Freer knew was impossible; it could lose the car that Mr. Shepherd was driving. Mr. Shepherd knew that, too, and showed his strategy. Alongside the bronze memorial of the Maori War at the top of Wakefield Street Mr. Shepherd swerved his car in ahead of the fugitive car and the other headed like lightning down the steep grade towards Queen Street. Mr. Freer saw the face of the driver and knew that the man was aware of his predicament. His skill as a driver was beyond question. In the next few seconds he was drivino- his car at sixty miles an hour. Mr. Shepherd swung round the other side of the triangular reserve and entered Wakefield Street at the rear of the memorial. The sharp turn into Lome Street was a serious obstacle to an ordinary driver turning from Wakefield Street at high speed, but the fugitive car rounded it safely and was pulling up near the back of St. James’s Theatre when Messrs. Shepherd and Freer again cr’”?H sight of it. In a

moment the driver was out' and riming through a crowd in the main corridor of the theatre. Mr. Freer was almost as quick; he dashed through the crowd, but lost his man. In such a place everything was in favour of the individual *he was chasing. Quickly changing his plans he rushed back to the car.°Two women and a young man were sitting in it, apparently a little excited.

“You sit still!” Mr. Freer ordered. “Keep an eye on them,” he asked an officials of the theatre. Across the street he secured a telephone and called the police. A few rainutes later the three occupants of tlie car were taken in charge and escorted vo the police station.

Mr. Freer looked at the speedometer of his car and found that it had travelled over a hundred miles since he had left it in Queen Street. The electric light bulbs with which he had it fitted had been blown but had been replaced and the cat was in good running order. Although only a matter of a few minutes, the cha'se "X-as one of the most exiting that has taken place in the city. Its most amazing feature was the skill displayed by b'bth drivers and the powers of anticipation of Mr. Shepherd in sensing the intentions of his quarry.