MIDNIGHT CHASE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 December 1931, Page 2

MIDNIGHT CHASE

BURGLARS SURPRISED, i SHOP IN VICTORIA STREET. CHRISTCHURCH, December 10. A dramatic scene' was enacted at the tobacconist’s shop of Mr A. Iv. Phillips, .173, Victoria Street, early yesterday morning. His son, Mr Tom Phillips, who returned, to his home a. few minutes after midnight, had been in only a few minutes when he heard what sounded likd glass breaking downstairs. Mr Phillips took his torch and went down quietly. For a time he heard nothing, then came a scratching noise and a low-voiced remark outside .the front door of the shop;

For fully a minute he stood inside [the door listening to the two men whom he could now see silhouetted against the glass of the door. Stealthily they continued their work, and for a moment Mr Phillips was undecided as to whether he should let them break into the shop and trap them in the small space there. On the ground than a broken door costs money to fix ho decided on immediate action. He threw open the door and spoke. For a moment it seemed ‘that his abruptness was going to have the desired effect of paralysing the men from action, but then they broke away. Mr Phillips .grabbed a t one of them, the biggerl The man swung a vicious uppercut, missed, but managed to break away and then made off after his companion who had turned into Dublin Street. Mr Phillips called out, and a neighbour and a policeman joined in the chase. None of them were slow, but the thieves, who were faster, disappeared in the direction of Hagley Park.

The men,'it'jHvas discovered, had not made much y progress on the door. There were several marks on the jamb where apparently a heavy screwdriver had been used, tpid a corner of the glass panel in the door was splintered. To aid , them the police have Mr Phillips’s description of the men and a pair of gloves and a torch which they dropped in‘ their fiight.-