A SMART RUSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 306, 20 August 1932, Page 6

A SMART RUSE

COCKFIGIITERS HOAX POLICE WITH A SANDWICII PARTY. LURED FAR AWAY. Three mysterious-looking men, carrying small sacks, slipped out of the back of a housa in a small industrial town in Yorkshire, recently, and stepped into a waiting motor car, which set off at top speed across the moors. Within a minute police cars darted away in hot pursuit. Ihe long chase did not end until the Lancashire border was reached. Ihere the three men of mystery got out of their car and produced from tne sacks — sandwiches! They ate them with rehsh in front of the disappointed police. At that moment, miles away, one of the most important cock fighting mains for many months was oeing held without police intrusion. it had been organised from the very town whose police sleuths had been aecoyed away to a picnic party by the "sandwich men." Last Minute Warning. The main had been arranged by leading exponents of cock fighting in the north, and some of the most doughty birds had been matched. A site was selected on the bleak moors nearly on the Lancashire border, and, although only a few of the people who were present lcn'ew the exact time and place, the secrec leaked out. ihe knowledge that the pulice were in the look-out come to the organisers' ears less than two hours before the arranged time. It was toolate to eancel the event but not too late to alter the details. Telephona calls were put through and visits were made to certain places. J The result was that, at the time ori- j ginally fixed for the start of the ex- i pedition, three men got into a motor j car as described by a Daily Express : correspondent. I Watchers Dieceived. Plainciothes policemen had been watching the house all day, and, as the motor car left — with, as it was thought, game-birds in the sacks — ; some officers went in police cars in j pursuit, while others flashid a warn- j ing to other parts of the county along j the route the men with the sacks were j expected to take. Everyone interested in the cock fighting, apart from the three decoys, had meanwhile gone to an isolated spot arranged at the last minute. Nearly fifty men saw matches for wagers varying from £5 to £100. Hundreds of p-ounds changed hands iuring the afternoon, and three valuable cocks fought until they died. There was not even a hint of police ffterferenee.