THEFTS FROM CARS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 333, 21 September 1932, Page 7

THEFTS FROM CARS

TOOLS AND PARTS SUGGESTION OF TRAFFICKING IN STOLEN GOODS DENIED. NO SECOND-HAND DEMAND. A suggestion has been made that thefts of tools and parts of ears are rbeing carried out on an organised basis, and that there is trafScking in such things stolen from cars. Garage proprietors scouted the idea, and said that there was no jnember of the Motor Traders' Association who would be so unscrupulous and foolish as to buy car parts from people hawking them around. "What would be the good of these parts?" asked a Christchurch garage man. "Do you think that any garage man, well supplied as they are with new parts, would waste his money buying junk, or parts of this and that which he has in quantity already? If a garage man stlarted that game and used those parts on the cars of his customers he would not last long in business." Another garage man said that a great many of the thefts from cars seemed to bs done by boys who often gathered a vast collection of all sorts of car parts and gadgets, apparently for no serviceable purpose at all. He had to look over a collection of stolen car parts the other days, and was amazed at the collection of nuts, bolts, tools, bulbs and well-oiled junk which had been gathered. "Some people steal things to replace , those they have lost," he said. "There ! are 'orphan' cars about, that is, they are out of make, and parts would he hard to get. People after such parts might think it worth while stealing them. Many of the tools and other things stolen would be useless for other makes of cars. And I am convinced that there is no organised sys-

tem of stealing from cars. JL or m- ! stance, one or two motor mascots have no counterpart in New Zealand, and they are numbered in addition, yet they have been stolen. No puoiie use can be made of such gadgets, and what use would an adult put them to ? Garage men will not buy stray lamps, bulbs, tools, and gadgets brought to them. We cannot get rid of our ext.msive, new and cheap stocks, and second-hand stuff hasn't any chance at all." "If tho idea has got abroad that somewhere there is a place where all these car parts are" made use of in making a sort of hybrid motor-car, it is merely a hright contribution to the gaiety of the springtime," said a workshop manager. "Every now and then the police gather in a hoy or two who have been making a hobby of stealing all sorts of car gadgets. Adults do not go round stealing radiator mas- 1 cots. When cars are stolen it is not for the purpose of hoiling them down as is done with push bicycles. In the last two or three years I think only one car has entirely disappeared from Christchurch after being stolen."