BURGLAR IN BANK

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1929, Page 16

BURGLAR IN BANK

SAFE DYNAMITED

EARLY MORNING CHASE

(By Telegraph.)

(Speelal to "Th« Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day.

Some time on Sunday, prior, apparently, to an early morning attempt to blow open the safe in the offices of the Honi "W. B. Tavcrner, M.P., in King Edward street, the branch oflico of the Dunedin Savings Bank, in Cargill road, in tho same neighbourhood, was entered and the large safe which stands in tho main ofiico had been dynamited. This was not discovered until yesterday, when members of the staff, arriving to commence business for the day, were amazed to see the front of the safe blown out and lying in a twisted heap some feet away, and the books which it had contained lying in indescribable confusion all over' tho floor. Fortunatejy no money is ever left on the branch premises, so that the intruder got nothing for his trouble except a loaded five-chambered revolver, which was found to be missing from its place under the teller's desk. Investigation showed that the building had been entered by a window at tho rear of the building. In view of the fact that a single pair of footprints was found on the bank counter, and from what occurred at Mr. Tavernor's oißces, it would appear that not only these attempts, but also those recently madeonthe Cavershaw Post Office and Messrs. Cossen's and Black's premises, were the work of one man.

CONSTABLES IN PURSUIT. Only, two constables in plain clothes were patrolling King Edward street in the vicinity of Main street about 3 o'clock on Sunday morning, and on one of them, going out to the railway embankment at Kensington so that he could overlook the surrounding buildings, ho noticed that a skylight in Mr. Taverner's offices was broken. Suspecting that something was amiss, he went down to investigate, at the same time calling on his mate to watch the front door. Unfortunately the other constable misunderstood the instruction, and made his way on to the embankment, but hardly had he reached the top when the front door was opened and a man dashed out and away in the direction of Cargill road. The constable, unable to get down the embankment steps to intercept the fugitive, shouted to another policeman who was on his regular beat further along the street, and he immediately gave chase. The runner, however, was fleet of foot, and, aided by the darkness and the fact that his pursuer was hampered by a heavy coat, he disappeared down one of the side streets ofi Cargill road and got clean away. He had a narrow escape, however, as at one stage the constable managed to get within a few yards of him.

Investigation of the office showed that careful preparations, evidently the work of an expert, had been made to dynamite the strong-room. The keyhole had been plugged with explosive, to which was laid a wired detonator attached to a small electric battery, and from the fact that a train was due a little after 3 a.m. it is thought that the safe-breaker wa's waiting until, it was passing before firing the charge, so that the sound of the explosion would be drowned by the noise of the train.

Apparently the safe-breaker made for the direction of the beach, as yesterday morning two boys found a revolver, some fuse, and dotonators, a. cold chisel, and a jemmy wrapped in brown paper lying behind a bush near the entrance to the beach at St. Kilda. The revolver was later identified as the one which was stolen from the bank at South Dunedin.