THREE ESCAPEES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 22 November 1939, Page 4

THREE ESCAPEES

CAUGHT AT HASTINGS TWO DAYS AT LARGE TRIP IN TOLAGA BAY CAR Three youths who escaped from the Opotiki lock-up on Sunday night while awaiting escort to Auckland were recaptured in Hastings yesterday. They had travelled far during the two days they were at large. Their presence was reported in Tolaga Bay on Monday afternoon, when they were seen near the beach. A car belonging to Mr. Edward Harries, Tolaga Bay, was removed that night, and five gallons of petrol were stolen from another private garage, that of Mr. T. G. McCullough at the school house. The car was recovered in Hastings yesterday. The disappearance of two 8 h.p. cars of the same make in Gisborne on Monday night aroused the suspicion at first that the trio had been operating in the town, but one of these cars is still missing. This 'belongs to Mr. Graham F. M. Flail, Napier, the number being 156,836. One of the trio is Raymond George Shepherd, aged 18, who had pleaded guilty in Opotiki on Friday to a charge of conversion of a car at Onehunga and breaking and entering and theft at Opotiki, where he was committed to the Supreme Court in Auckland for sentence. Similar charges were preferred against the other two in the Children's Court, and they were remanded to appear in the Children’s Court in Auckland. They are both 16 years of age. The youths were captured in the Maraekakaho district, near Hastings. Learning that the suspects were in the district, a police posse went out to Maraekakaho early in the afternoon. An abandoned car, identified as one which had been stolen from Tolaga Bay, was found on the roadside, ■ and a search was immediately begun in the vicinity. The youths were found hiding in a scrub-covered drain. They offered no resistance when apprehended, and were later lodged in the Hastings police station cells. They showed signs of the privations to which they had been subjected, and were very glad to receive food when they were arrested. The car which they had left was undamaged. The small store owned by Mr. W. Firth, Wainui Beach, and situated by the side of the Hamanatua Stream near the surf club premises, was entered recently by unauthorised persons and soft drinks and tinned meats and fruits valued at about £2 were stolen. The loss of the contents of the store was noticed yesterday afternoon. Nothing more definite than that the.' theft took place in the past two weeks could be gained because the store was used only during the summer months. The intruders had broken through a side window to get into the shop and nothing of value had been left behind