MURUPARA BURGLARY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 September 1931, Page 3

MURUPARA BURGLARY

money discovered roadman finds portion of burglar's £2158 haul HIDDEN BESIDE ROAD Yesterday afternoon, four months to a day from the date of the sen,sational burglary at Murupara Public Works base, when the camp payroll of £2158 was stolen from the office safe, a Maori roadman, working beside the road at' a spot about 500 yards distant from the main eamp, unearthed a box containing "a large proportion of the missing money. .It is reported that the whole 'of the amount stolen has been recovered, but this could not be confirmed last evening. . - j Two constables- from Rotorua and a detective from Hamilton, have been dispatched to Murupara and are investigating the matter.

So far as can be ascertamed, the money was found partially buried in a box and was hidden in brush beside the road where it turns of to Wairarapakau. The Maori" was working: beside tbe road when he discovered the box and noti.ced that it contained snvelopes from which banknotes were protruding. He immediately reported his find. A reward of £200 was offered some time ago for the recovery of the money. Full details could not be obtained last evening, but it was definitely aseertained that some, if not all of the missing money, had been recovered. Although careful investigatiohs were made by the police, efforts to* bring any persons to hook for the burglary have so far been fruitless; The money was removed from a smail office safe at the base camp some time during' the night of May 4 and although one of the two employees .vho had brought the pay-roll from Rotorua to the camp, was sleeping in the next room, he heard no sound during the night. Both the office door and the door of the safe were locked, bnt skeleton keys were evidently used to gain admission. In view of the fact that it was usual to take the pay-roll out to camp at approximately the same time every month, the knowledge 'shown by the thief or thieves disclosed care-: ful planning of the whole affair. Despite the most careful sifting, it comoletely baffled the police, and no clues as to ' the whereabouts of the missing money had been obtained until yesterday's discovery.