BURGLAR CAPTURED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 1

BURGLAR CAPTURED

BREAKS AWAY AGAIN IN HOTEL OFFICE A FRUITLESS CHASH Special to THE SUX NSW PLYMOUTH, Today. A hotel burglary was frustrated when a stocking-footed man, poised on his hands and knees in a bedroom of a New Plymouth hotel early this morning, was surprised by a guest, and with the assistance of the night porter was captured. The would-be burglar surrendered and was escorted to the hotel office while the porter rang for the police. During that interlude the culprit changed his mind about going quietly and broke away. He ducked through the clutches of the guest, who was an elderly man, raced up the stairs and escaped by the way he had come via the fire escape. Pursuit was in vain, the man still being apparently in his stocking feet. He was thought to be a half-caste Maori, and a hat he left behind and his description were given to the police. The man was luckier than he anew because the night watchman had visited the hotel yard just before he was surprised and the police arrived just after he escaped, while in the room next to that he had entered was Mr. Justice Reed. Similar tactics are not uncommon at such a time as the present when shows are held in New Plymouth. As far as is known no money or jewellery Is missing.