CAPTURED BURGLAR WITH EMPTY GUN

Chronicle (Levin), 21 July 1947, Page 7

CAPTURED BURGLAR WITH EMPTY GUN

-Press Association

Bv Telearavh

AUCKLAND/ July 20. Armed with an empty double barrel .shotgun, a watchman on Saturday night surprised a gang of at least four burg lars who were in the act of ransarfking the ofii.ee in a scoria pit owned by the Railway Department, in Maurice Road, Penrose, One of the intruders was eov ered by the sight of the gun and made no attempt to escape Dut the others rah away into the darkness. Three suspects were arrested today by detectives when a radio patrol car from the city detective office was despatched to the scene in answer to a telephone eall from the watchman, Mr. A. Third. A red truck with an unopened -office sat'e on the back was discovered on the other side of a hill in the pit. The truck and safe were identified as the property of N. Austin, Ltd., and had been stolen from the firm's boiling down works at Te Papapa. Explosives which could be used for blowing open the safe are stored in the scoria pit. Mr. Third, who took the job of watchman at the pit only last Wednesday, said he was wakened between 10.30 p.m. and 11 p.m. by the crash of broken glass followed by a lot of banging and thumpr ing coming from the direction of the ganger.'s office. Reaching for his double barrel" shotgun which he had used a few hours earlier for hunting rabbits, Mr. Third crept toward the office wekring au overcoat over his pyjamas and a pair of slippers. In the pale light cast by a street lanfp eome distance away, he counted about five shadowy figures both inside and outside the office. The right hand lower pane in the window had been smashed. Standing about 10 feet away from th». office Mr. Third cried out: "What are you doing here?" Two men who had been forcing open cupboard doors in tho office jumped out of the window and, joined by a third who was lurking outside, made off at top speed. The fourth man who was nearest to the muzzle of the unloaded gun iu Mr. Third 's hand, submitted to capture without resistance. He was later handed over to detectives.