POLICE CHASE STOPPED

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1930, Page 3

POLICE CHASE STOPPED

_.;OCK TRAGEDY AFTER ROBBERY

When closely pursued by the police and in danger of capture, motor bandits who robbed a London furrier’s shop window adopted a smart ruse to get away. The thieves, apparently, four in number, escaped with several hundred pounds worth of furs stolen from the shop. A master mind, it is thought directed their operations. The thieves drew up in a car outside the shop at 1 o’clock in the morning, threw a spare wheel through the plateglass window, and before the shower of glass had finished falling were inside securing the goods on show. To clear {he window took only a few seconds, but the crash of glass had made a terrific noise. The thieves drove off just when a policeman, who had detected them, commandeered a taxicab. A hot pursuit followed in the narrow winding streets of the neighbourhood, and the bandits were unable to throw of their pursuers.

Suddenly the policeman, a civilian who had come to his assitance, and the taxicab driver were horrified to see a “woman” drop 'from the car they were pursuing and fall directly in their path. There was no time to swerve, and the driver of the cab jammed on his brakes, but without avail. With two bumps the wheels of the taxi went over the prostrate form.

The constable and his assistant ran back to give first aid to the. casualty, but saw with horror that the “woman” had been decapitated. A hand- was also lying some distance away. Then the pursuers discovered that they had been cleverly fooled. The taxicab had merely crushed a wax dummy from the shop window. .Still dressed and wearing an expensive coat, the dummy had been grabbed by the raiders from the fur shop. They had not the time to strip the coat from it when the chase began. The ruse gave the bandits their chance to get clear. As the. dummy’s face bore blood smears the police believe that one .of the raiders was badly cut when the window was smashed, and that they turned their misfortune to account at thfe last moment.

“Whether the smearing was pre-ar-ranged or not,” said the managing director of the company owning the business, “it was stage-managed with great skill. The ‘woman’ looked a

ghastly sight when the police car drew up. A street lamp happened to he throwing a yellow light pn ‘her’! By the time the police discovered they were looking at nothing more horrible than broken wax, the bandits had disappeared.”