EPSOM RAIDED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 85, 1 July 1927, Page 1

EPSOM RAIDED

Five Premises and Motor Car Suffer Thieves 9 Depredations

‘ PECULIAR GENTLEMAN IN SPECTACLES

rO residences, two garages, and a store, were broken into at Epsom either yesterday afternoon or during last night, and a car standing in the street was removed. The thief, or thieves, secured little for their enterprise—two gold watches, a small quantity of jewellery, about £5 in money, a double-barrelled shot-gun, and a safe empty of money, comprising their haul.

Apparently the first haul was made at the residence of Mr. W. B. Fordyce, in Marama Crescent. This was entered through the kitchen window at about 3 p.m., judging front a stoppage of the clock, and the fact that the house was empty at that time. The whole place was ransacked, but there was no money, a .art from a few pennies, in the house at the time. A quantity of jewellery was left, but the thief only removed a gold watch and a penknife. THE MAIN VENTURE The evening saw the main venture. About eight o’clock there was a caller at Mr. W. T. Cumberland’s residence in Manukau Road. Whether he was connected with the burglary remains to be seen. He was inquiring for someone living in the vicinity, and a great deal of difficulty was experienced in making him understand where the place was. Miss Cumberland got the impression that he was a “peculiar-looking gentleman, with horn-rimmed goggles,” who seemed more. interested in the interior of the house than in the information he was seeking. A DARING ENTRY Several people were in the house at the time, congregated in the kitchen. After his departure the next caller was a Checker taxi-driver, who was under the impression that there had been a call from the house. Following this, another Miss Cumberland arrived home, and thought she saw someone leaving the grounds. An inspection of the rooms was then made, and it was found that someone had entered the front bedroom through the window, had % turned the whole room upside down, and had decamped with Mr. Cumberland’s gold watch and chain, five £1 notes, and jewellery. At about the same time someone was trying his fortune at B. P. Olesen and Son’s store across the road. A pane of glass Lad been broken m the front door, giving access to the Yale lock, but the door was bolted at the top, and could not b. opened. Apparently the thief then tried the back way in, but was disturbed by a neighbour’s dog, and made a hurried get-away. There was no money in the store in any case. TWO GARAGES ENTERED Sometime during the evening or night there were happenings a couple of blocks further down the street. It was discovered this morning that the garages owned by Messrs. De Leun and Hardley on one corner, and Fletcher and Maddocks on the opposite corner, had been entered. This is the second time within two months that De Leun and Hardley have suffered the depredations of thieves. Previously they lost £lO from the cash register. Since then the money has not been left in the

garage. Last, night the thieves entered boldly by smashing open the front door, splintering the post into which the lock was screwed. They confined their attentions to the office, opened three of the four drawers, and gave the other up, and left accompanied by the office safe. The safe contained books and papers only, and the fourth office drawer, which was not opened, contained the only cash in the garage, about £2 of petty cash, which was intact. A Dodge sedan, which was left in the street somewhere near the garage, disappeared early in the evening, and was located, abandoned in a street in Grey Lynn, this morning. On its recovery it was found that the car had been driven about 40 miles. It has suffered about £2 worth of damage, including a broken wind-screen, and damage to the upholstery. The front door of the Fletcher and Maddox garage was also broken in, in the same way as the other, and the thieves made a complete mess of the contents of the office. "They did not find any money, because there was no money left there. As far as could be discovered this morning the only tiling removed was a duly registered double-barrelled shot-gun.