STOLEN ROTORUA CAR RECOVERED IN DRAIN AT ONEPU

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 76, 11 April 1949, Page 5

STOLEN ROTORUA CAR RECOVERED IN DRAIN AT ONEPU

Missing from- Rotorua since April '3, a small English motor car was recovered in a swampy drain by the side of the main rua highway at Onepu on Thursday might. Very badly damaged, the car "was found by Constable R. F. Julian, Whakatane, to be in the possession of two, 16 year old high school youths, from Rotorua. The car was being driven in the direction of Whakatane when it left the road and crashed into the drain. Jt was extensively damaged, all one side being smashed right in. The total cost for repairs is considered to exceed £l5O. The occupants of the vehicle escaped any injqry and instead of ■disappearing, as most car converters would probably have done in their position, they rang for a breakdown wagon at Whakatane to haul them out. By the time the wagon and the police arrived on the scene a considerable crowd had collected. The car was recovered from the drain and later driven to Whakatane under its own power by Con--stable Julian, who also took the "two youths into custody. .