CAUGHT BLUE HANDED

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5293, 4 January 1947, Page 2

CAUGHT BLUE HANDED

FALSE ALARM GIVER DETECTED NEW YORK The Hempstead Fire Department, which likes to do things the natural scientifie way, finaHy catught a false alarm suspect just the way it intended — bluehanded, but even so it took just 'a little help frpn> the suspect •himself. Last summer the firemen sprayed phosphorescent powder on the handles of all fire boxes, so that anyone pulling^the" alarm handles would get powder on his hand. For a month afterward the powder can be detected under a special infra-red lamp, which makes it show up a hright blue. Two boys saw a .man turn in a fire alarm and run away from the box. They reported it to police. .An hour later, while officers were making out an ofiicial report, a man walked in and said he wanted to report a holdup,. as well as the fact that he had .been stabbed. Police were inclined to doubt him, as they coldn't find any stah marks, hut 'he answered the description given by the -two boys. The police siummoned the firemen, who came running with their infrared lamp — and sure enough the suspect had a shiny, blue palm: He was held on a false fire alarm charge.