CONVERTED CAR LEFT BLAZING IN MIDDLE OF ROAD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 5, 9 December 1947, Page 4

CONVERTED CAR LEFT BLAZING IN MIDDLE OF ROAD

About 7 o’clock on Sunday morning a car belonging to the Bay of Plenty Power Board, which had been unlawfully taken from the Strand in the very early hours, was found parked in the middle of Pahou road, Poroporo, in flames. Its lawful driver, Mr T. Hurndell, saw it last when he parked it at the Pest Office while he made a telephone call some time shortly after midnight. Mr Hurndell had been to the Fire Brigade’s smoke concert, and left his car for only a few minutes while he went to use the "telephone. When he came back the car was gone. In the course of their investigations the police have formed the opinion that it was probably the car that Mr Thomas Maxwell saw zigzag past his place near where the burning car was found. That was about 3.15 a.m. About 7 a.m. Mrs A. Kopae saw the car blazing in the middle of the road and got other Maori women to help her put the fire out, but they were unable to prevent the whole interior being gutted. Earth in the back seat which did not come from the place where the car was found, suggested that the illegal joy riders had tried to cope with a fire some time before they actually abandoned the car.