CONVERTED TRUCK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 98, 12 July 1946, Page 2

CONVERTED TRUCK

MISCREANT APPREHENDED DETECTIVE WORK INVOLVED Eddie Brown, a native of Ruatoria, appeared before the Whakatane Court yesterday, charged with unlawfully converting a motor truck, the property of J. K. Newdick, Public Works contractor, of Maketu. He was remanded to appear on July 17. The investigation which finally led to the apprehension of accused is rather interesting, as it throws a sidelight on the actual amount of detective work involved when such an offence is reported.

The truck in question was appropriated from Matata between 11 p.m. and midnight on Saturday. The theft was reported, and the police immediately instituted a search, which continued all day Sunday, without success. On Monday, Sergeant Farrell and Constable Thom continued to comb the district, and at last managed to locate the stolen vehicle, abandoned at the end of Brophy’s Road, Otakiri. But the appearance of the truck was such that the mystery was immediately heightened. The vehicle was tipped forward into a hedge. The road had been" gouged out deeply by the back wheels; and last but hot least, the interior of the cab, the outside of the door on the driver’s side, the back of the truck, and the ground surrounding, was a mass of blood stains. There appeared, in fact, enough blood to indicate that "the driver involved had been badly injured; yet the gouging out of the road inicated that someone had endeavoured to back the truck' out, without success. The windscreen was intact, yet the driver’s window had been smashed. The First Clue

But out of the ‘wreck’ one # point was drawn—the wanted man was injured, not seriously enough to prevent him walking away, yet apparently sufficiently bad for him to splash the truck and surrounding ground liberally with his blood. Working on this line, the police continued to scour the area, at the same time keeping a close watch on the doctor’s rooms at Edgecumbe. (As it transpired later, the man had approached the rooms; to have his injury attended to, but finding them too crowded had gone away again). Finally two suspects were located. One was accounted for satisfactorily, the other one was due to receive more attention. He resided tempor-

arily between Edgecumbe and Te Teko, and was employed on maize plucking. When the police called he was at home —a deep gash in the fleshy part of his hand prevented him from working. The man was a stranger to the district, and the gash on his hand, could, when first received, have spilled copious quantities of blood if it had received no immediate attention. But when questioned on the point, the man’s story held water perfectly. He had been opening a bottle of beer. He had placed the top against that of another bottle, and when he had struck it downwards (to remove the top from the first bottle), the neck had broken, and he had gashed his hand. So the police ould do no more than take his name, Eddie Brown, and retire. But enquiries at Matata revealed that Brown had been there on Saturday night, but had not taken a taxi home. Here was another point, but the suspected man had an answer to this one too. He had walked some of the way and then been picked up by a car returning from the Tauranga races. Denouement That was quite plausible too, so the .police decided to take him and show him the truck.

j They did so, and on the bloodstained scene, it did not take long to break down accused’s story. A statement admitting the offence followed. But there were still several holes in the scheme which, although unimportant were interesting. If accused wished to abandon the truck, why do so in such a violent manner? Why should there be such a quantity of blood smeared everywhere? And finally, presuming accused smashed the driver’s window when I breaking into the truck (the windscreen remember, sustained'no damage) how was he able to drive the truck at all while bleeding so copiously. The answers came logically enough. Firstly, accused related, he was a stranger to the district. He had intended to abandon the vehicle outside the Edgecumbe picture theatre, but had taken a wrong turning, and had crashed into the hedge at the end of Brophy’s Road instead. jHe had endeavoured to back it out, ibut without success. And in the [ neantime, the door had become locked, and he could not discover how o release the catch. Thus he was orced to smash the window not to get in, but to get out. He had cut his hand badly, and bleeding prousely, had crawled into the back of he truck in .an endeavour to find omething with which to bind it up. Not even lie, however, was aware of he vast quantity of blood which he had spilled in doing so. Sharp Wits Needed Thus the offender was finally apprehended and is at present awaiting trial. It is not often that the full story such as above is released, but it serves to indicate, that detective work is not a science carried on only in the cities by specially trained men; it enters daily into the lives of most members of the Police force, and a criminal- whether petty or therwise, in a small place, or in the argest city in the world, can display ingenuity which takes sharp wits to beat.