INNOCENT ARREST

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 155, 23 February 1932, Page 7

INNOCENT ARREST

CONSTABLE AND SUSPECTED TIIIEF WITHOUT TROUSERS. TORN OFF ON FENCES. SYDNEY, Saturday. Constable Lannigan may .have his doubts regarding the comparative values of one half of a pair of uniform trousers as against one suspeeted thief and eight hundredweight of copper wire. Nevertheless, Constable Lannigan gallantly, if immodestly, sacrificed the greater part of his pants for the suspect and wire aforesaid. And if it is any consulation, he has the knowledge that his captive suffered a similar fate. It all happened through the suspicions aroused in the minds of Detectives. Blackwell, Ramsay and A. George when they saw a man carrying a heavy saek near St. John's College. Missenden Road, Camperdown. The man saw them too — and ran, very rapidly. He was too good, however, for the three detectives, and was well ahead at the end of the first mile. But the police carried on. Then Contable Lannigan ,ex-middle-weight boxer and champion runner, arrived on the scene, driving a P.D. car along Parramatta Road. "Something wrong?" he shouted at the fleeing man. Left Trousers Behind. The man increased his speed, and Lannigan pulled on the handbrake, switched off the engine, and leapt out, even before the car stopped. Taking- a short cut through the University grounds, he cleared six : fences, and left his trousers on one of : them. He eventually cornered the fugitive, who tried to seale a six-foot high fence, but beeame caught in some brabed wire, losing his pants when the police pulled him down. In a clump of bushes in the University grounds the detectives later found 3cwt of copper wire that had been stolen from the University.