SENSATIONAL ESCAPE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE

COUNTRY LOCK-UP INCIDENT FLOORING BOARDS BURNED Deliberately endangering his own life, a man who was lodged in a lockup at Dungog, New South Wales, recently by the Dungog police, set fire to the flooring boards and escaped when a hole had been buriJted large enough for him to crawl through. The police arrested a man who had been boarding at Dungog for about three weeks, and who was ostensibly the representative of a Sydney firm.

They alleged that he had stolen rings, cheques and money valued at more than £2OO, and they entered charges of theft against him. He was lodged in a stout portable lockup, built of heavy timber, and raised about a foot above the ground.

About half-past six the following morning a milkman on his round noticed smoke coming from the police quarters. He warned the officers, who hastened to release the prisoner. Tearing open the door of the lock-up, they were confronted with dense clouds of smoke, but the prisoner had gone. It was found that he had lighted a fire with the leaves of a book he had with him, fed it with his blankets, and had succeeded in burning a hole in the floor big enough to admit his body. The prisoner then wormed his way to freedom through the narrow space between the floor and the ground. Three heavy boards had been burned through and the man’s erratic footprints in the police garden showed that he had been almost overcome with smoke, and had staggered about before regaining his senses. After his escape the man returned to the house where he had been boarding, removed suitcases and clothes from his car, and left unnoticed.