THRILLING NIGHT CHASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19373, 23 December 1932, Page 8

THRILLING NIGHT CHASE

BOY APPREHENDS BURGLAR. TWO MONTHS GAOL FOR INTRUDER. While Mr W. H. Foden and his family were seated in the breakfast room of their home in Perth Street at about 9.45 on Wednesday night a young man audaciously entered Mr Foden’s bedroom by the window and proceeded to search the room. To facilitate his investigation he switched on the light, but the action proved a fatal mistake, for some minutes later a daughter, who had been outside, informed Mr Foden that there was someone in his room. On going to investigate, Mr Foden noticed the light shining under the door and entering the room saw a man standing at the dressing stable. The intruder on being disturbed made a dive through the open window, through which he had entered the room, but Mr Foden managed to catch hold of one of the burglar’s feet as they disappeared over the sill, only to receive a nasty kick in the stomach which completely winded him.

The noise of the struggle attracted the attention of Mr Foden’s 15-year-oid grandson, who rushed into the room just in time to see the burglar making his get-away through the window. With commendable pluck and presence of mind the boy followed suit, and gave chase down the steps and out on to the street. The intruder fled in the direction of the Gasworks, with the boy in hot pursuit, followed at some distance by his father. The boy was fleeter of foot than the burglar, and he eventually ran his quarry to earth at the corner of Bank Street and Arthur Street and grappled with him. A struggle ensued, but the lad was able to detain the man until his father arrived. The two then set out with their captive for the police station, the latter resisting violently all the -way. At one stage of their journey the party met two men, and asked them to assist in getting the prisoner to the station, but they displayed little sense of citizenship and declined on the score that they did not w'ant to be involved in Court proceedings. Eventually the police were telephoned for and arrived to take the captive in charge. The plucky action of the boy in tackling single-handed the task of arresting the man was in contradistinction to that of the two men who were appealed to for help. Accused Sentenced. When the man was brought before Mr C. R. Orr-Walker, S.M., yesterday morning on a charge of being unlawfully on enclosed premises, his identity was revealed as Charles Edward Solomon, aged 23, who last February was convicted of theft.

Solomon pleaded guilty. • In outlining the case, Senior-Ser-geant I. Mathieson remarked on the plucky behaviour 'Of the boy who had arrested accused. Constable Hastie said that when arrested, accused had a strong smell of drink about him. He was able to walk all right until they were near the Queen’s Hotel when he collapsed apparently under the influence of liquor, or pretending to be. Accused had stated that he had no knowledge of going into the house. Nothing had been broken nor anything taken. Accused said he had no recollection of the incident. He had been fairly drunk. He had come up from the south and had been drinking heavily, and had had more liquor to Timaru. The Magistrate: “That is no excuse. If a man gets into a private house to such a way, the assumption is l that he is there for theft. You were sober enough to get out of the window so you couldn’t have been so drunk as not to know what you were doing. The fact that you have been convicted recently of theft leads me to the conclusion that you should be punished severely. This sort of thing cannot be tolerated and you are fortunate that a more serious charge has not been laid. You will be sentenced to two month’s imprisonment.”