LETTER BOXES RIFLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24423, 8 October 1940, Page 8

LETTER BOXES RIFLED

SMART ARRESTS EFFECTED THIEVES TRACED THROUGH A CHEQUE (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Oct 7. Prompt action by a Fendalton tenant, her landlord, the bank and Post Office authorities, and a detective led to the arrest of four men in connection with the rifling of nine Post Office letter boxes in various suburbs of .the city and outlying districts during the weekend. The areas mainly affected were Fendalton and New Brighton. A woman living in Fendalton posted a cheque for rent to her landlord on Saturday. This morning she noticed that the letter box at the corner of Holmwood road and Rossall street had been tampered with. She immediately telephoned her landlord and asked whether he had received the cheque. When he said that he had not and learned that she had posted it he telephoned to the Bank of New Zealand on which the cheque was drawn explaining the circumstances. The bank officials with the Post Office inquiry officer waited for he cheque to be presented and it was not long before a youth brought it in inquiries led to his arrest, and, after other inquiries had been made elsewhere, three other men were arrested. Letters were found in creeks and streams in the districts where the letter boxes had been rifled.