NAKED GIRL ALONE ON RUNAWAY ENGINE.

Shannon News, 14 July 1925, Page 4

NAKED GIRL ALONE ON RUNAWAY ENGINE.

POLICE TO THE RESCUE IN ] SCALDING STEAM. MIDNIGHT ESCAPADE. LONDON. May 13. A runaway railway engine, driven by a naked and'demented girl of 17 alone on the footplate, rushing out of Middlesbrough at midnight. The capture of the girl by the police, after the engine had collided with waggons and done £250 worth of damage, and her removal to the police station wrapped in a constable's cloak, These,are extraordinary features of an adventure described by the chief constable of Middlesbrough in his anuual report issued on Saturday. The First Clue. Chief Constable - Riches, in commending the conduct of police officers, says that on March 23, shortly after midnight, a 17-year-old girl was reported missing from her home in North Ormsby. The police organised a search, and Sergeant Wildon and Constables B. Smith and Nudd found an engine near the works of Messrs. Crewdson Hardy and Co. on the banks of the river. Clouds of scalding steam were pouring from the engine, and it was at great personal risk that the police officers boarded it. There they found the missing girl. She had no clothing on, and was jumping about the cab from one side to the other. The girl, it was learned, had wandered into the premises of , Messrs. Pease and Partners, Tees Ironworks, and seeing- an engine, had mounted the cab and set it in motion. Unable, to Stop. She removed her clothing, and, unable or unwilling to stop the. engine, 1 had driven - a 'considerable distance across several lines until the engine entered a siding and crashed into some .standing waggons, doing damage to the extent of over £250. After a short struggle the girl was overpowered and taken to the police station. "It was a most extraordinary case," comments the chief" constable, "and but for the intelligence and promptitude of the officers in following up their inquiries, the damage to property and probably to life would have been more serious."