MIDNIGHT STRUGGLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 79, 24 June 1927, Page 1

MIDNIGHT STRUGGLE

Burglar Overpowered and Trussed Up By Householder

ENCOUNTER AT THREE KINGS

STRUGGLING in the dark last night, Mr. Hull Kinloch, of Three Kings, overpowered a burglar, trussed him in a neat bundle and then sat down and waited for the arrival of the police.

A LIGHTED candle was extinJ ' w- guished by the burglar, but still the struggle went on. The intruder came off worst, but Mr. Kinloch, who is a powerfully-built man, is suffering from a strained right hand and a bruised foot this morning. The encounter took place in the hall of Mr. Kinloch’s home at Three Kings, Mount Roskill, at about 11 o'clock last night. “I was in my pyjamas,” said Mr. Kinloch this morning. “I thought heard something about the house, but on investigating I could not find anything, so I went back to bed again. “A little later, however, I rose again, as I felt that there was someone about. As I went into the hall I saw a man crouching down behind the hall curtain. I went for him and ‘landed’ him a good one. He came at me, but I got another hit at him and he went down.” Mr. Kinloch said that, the burglar knocked over the only light, a candle, evidently in an attempt to elude him in the darkness. The struggle lasted for some time and brought Mr. Kin loch’s sister on the scene.

By this time Mr. Kinloch had given the burglar enough to go on with, as he was lying fairly quiet on the floor. Mr. Kinloch then trussed up the intruder with a bridle and a rope. The burglar had evidently collected the bridle to take away with him, as well as a rug and a coat belonging to the owner of the house. “He was wearing my coat,” said Mr. Kinloch, with a smile, as he remembered the encounter. The burglar’s boots were outside the door. “I usually have a good watchdog,” said Mr. Kinloch. “but this time I had a little spaniel. He seemed to think it a great affair, and ran round the hall, jumping over the burglar, as he lay on the floor.” When the intruder had been quietened and tied up, Mr. Kinloch sat down beside him in the hall, until the police arrived a quarter of an hour later. Mr. Kinloch lives in an isolated part of Three Kings. This is not the first time he has been visited by burglars, but it should be the last for some time. This morning, Norman Selwyn Connelly’, aged 37, appeared at the Police Court and was remanded to appear oil June 30, on a chairge of breaking and entering the dwelling of Hull Kinloch, Mount Roskill. and stealing goods valued at £4 17 s.