HUNTING THIEVES

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 7

HUNTING THIEVES

AEROPLANE FOR POLICE. SEARCH AT LOW ALTITUDE. For the first time in Great Britain, an aeroplane was specially chartered and used by a Northamptonshire police officer in an attempt to find two men suspected of burglary. Flying at a low altitude, the aeroplane searched the Wellingborough and Wollaston district for about half an hour, but without success. The burglary took place at Wollaston, and while the police were making a search for the thieves they saw two men drop bundles, which were afterwards found to contain stolen goods, and make off into some open country known as Ironstone Workings. Because of the uneven nature of the ground and the difficulty of throwing a cordon round the area, Superintendent E. E. Jones, of Wellingborough, decided to search from the air. He telephoned Sywell Aerodrome, about six miles away, for a ’plane, dashed there by motor car, and jumped into ’.he waiting machine, which was piloted by Flying Officer G. C. Goldsmith, of the R-A.F. Reserve. “The visibility was excellent,” Superintendent Jones told a Daily Mail reporter afterwards, “and if the men had been anywhere in the open I should have seen them. I believe they must have crossed the workings and got away before the police cordon was completed.” Aeroplanes have been used by the police in Britain to hun J men, but they have never been specially chartered, the ’planes having been put at their disposal b- private owners. Several police forces have canned out experiments with aeroplanes for crime work, but until this case one had not been brought into use. ; ... . .