ARREST EVADED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19805, 22 May 1934, Page 11

ARREST EVADED

CAR THIEF ELUDES CONSTABLE LEAPS FROM RUNNING BOARD By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND, May 21. A successful effort to evade arrest I was made by a motor car thief, who i leaped from a moving car and escaped ! in the darkness when accosted by a constable in Newton. The owner left the car in Queen Street while he attended a picture theatre, and it was stolen in his absence. Constable J. McKenzie saw a threeseater answering the description of the stolen vehicle travelling slowly along the Great North Road. The car was stopped with its engine still running. As soon as the .driver saw the constable approaching lie drove off. Before the car could gather speed the constable managed to jump on to the near side running board, and retained his hold while the driver accelerated. The driver of the stolen car opened the right-hand door and slid out from behind the wheel, standing on the offside running board and steering with one hand. For a short distance the car continued with the thief on one running board and the constable on the other, the width of the vehicle separating them. Near the corner, however, the thief jumped clear, leaving the constable clinging to the car, which was by that time travelling smartly. Determined to arrest the thief, the constable also jumped from his side of the car. Both men fell on the roadway, and the thief, who picked himself up smartly, was chased, but scaled a fence and disappeared. With nobody at the wheel the car continued down a slight grade, swerved to the right and crashed into the gate of a property at the corner of Burgoyne Street. The impact was sufficient to smash about 10 feet of paling fence, while a verandah rail was also broken, the car coming to rest with one front wheel almost inside the door of the house. The" occupant of the house said that there was a terrific crashing of broken wood and glass as the car struck the building, and at first he thought an explosion had occurred. One of the gate posts was hurled half-way down ; the hill, while a stout verandah support was pushed well inside the front : door, a large glass panel in which was ! broken. Several boards near the front door were smashed. A similar crime with more serious consequences was committed in Auckland last September, when Constable E. E. Stewart had his right leg badly fractured in an attempt to arrest a motor car thief.