DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 13

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

DARING CRIME COMMITTED IN CHRISTCHURCH THIEF SECURES £270 Special to THE S' T V CHRISTCHURCH, Today. A tfeverly planned robbery was committed at the office of Hatherley Brothers in Salisbury Street between noon and one o’clock yesterday, the thief walking off with about £270 in cash. The money was cash which had been drawn from the bank a few hours before to pay the wages of the firm's employees. The thief, who evidently knew his way about the office and the customs of the business, entered the office by breaking the glass ot a window and unlatching it. Once inside he found the key of the desk in which the money was lying, opened the desk, took the money and went out by the way he had entered. The firm, which is a large plastering business, employs 40 ‘or 50 men, ineluding apprentices, and the regular custom is for the senior partner, Mr. E. J. Hatherley, to call in at the office early on Friday morning and to write a cheque for the wages which are to be paid later in the day. This was done yesterday, and the cheque was cashed subsequently by Mr. McDowell, the clerk. The amount which was drawn from the bank today is much more than the £l5O which is normally drawn each week. This in itself could be regarded as evidence that the crime is the work of someone with a knowledge of the business. Added to this, however, i 3 the fact that the staff in the office next door, that of a joinery works —usually quite a number of men—consisted of the foreman and a single apprentice.