SAFE BROKEN OPEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 127, 31 May 1937, Page 6

SAFE BROKEN OPEN

THIEVES AT RAILWAY STATION PAPAROA DISCOVERY L Per Press Association. ] AUCKLAND, May 28. The heavy steel door of a safe was torn from its mountings and hurled through the kauri panelling of a counter an inch thick by a strong charge of gelignite which was used by thieves who entered the railway station at Paparoa. Although they decamped with about £23 in notes and silver, the intruders were apparently disturoed while at work and left substantial sums of money scattered about the premises. The doors were locked and the windows were shuttered when the last member of the staff on duty left the station at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, and although the stationmaster’s residence is only 100 yards from the building, nothing untoward was heard during the night. The burglary was discovered at 5.45 this morning when the guard of a passing train noticed the door of the office open. Investigations revealed a scene of chaos inside the building. Although set in a concrete block 6ft. square, the safe was shattered, pieces lying all about the floor of the office. The door, which had apparently received the full force of the explosion, had been thrown bodily through the thick panelling of the counter. This was extensively damaged. Scattered about the floor were numbers of sacks which had apparently been employed to deaden the noise of the explosion and notes and small change were lying over every part of the room. Entrance was apnarently gained by forcing a window at the front of the building. A considerable sum of money contained in an envelope was overlooked by the thieves, who also left several pounds in notes and silver lying on the floor. The sacks which were used by the intruders were apparently stolen from the home of a farmer several miles away. In addition, the thieves removed from here an overcoat and rug and syphoned petrol from a car, which this morning was found to possess an empty tank.