WILD MOTOR CHASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 990, 5 June 1930, Page 1

WILD MOTOR CHASE

MAN PURSUED AT 50 MILES AN HOUR EXTRAORDINARY BEHAVIOUR After a thrilling 50 miles an hour chase yesterday afternoon, when two men on a motor-cycle pursued a stolen car which, it is stated, was being driven wildly all over the road, the driver of the car was taken to the Mount Albert police station in the side-car of the motor-cycle. He was in a stupor when he arrived and had to be carried into the station. This morning, at the Police Court, Leonard Alfred Martin, who was unable to appear, was charged with converting to his own use a car valued at £230, and belonging to William Lauder. Other counts against accused, a mechanic, aged 22, were that he was intoxicated in charge of a .car, that he had damaged two electric lights valued at £l, and belonging to the New Zealand Government, and that he had obtained seven gallons of petrol, valued at 12s lOd, from Schofield and Company, Newmarket, by falsely representing that he was employed by C. F. Bennett, a land agent. Martin, who did not appear, being still at the police station, was remanded for a week for a medical observation, Sub-Inspector Shanahan remarking that the man appeared to be mentally defective. DRIVING IN CIRCLES The zeal of the two men who chased Martin on the motor-cycle led to his arrest. About 4.15 yesterday afternoon, Mr. F. Glasgow Watkinson, of 5 Winstone Road, Mount Roskill, an omnibus driver in the employ of the Transport Board, was in the shop occupied by Mrs. Henderson, at the intersection of Mount Albert and Dominion Roads. He saw a motor-car being driven in circles at a high speed and called to another man in the shop, Mr. Thomas Fitzgerald, of Halsey Drive, Mount Roskill, "Come on. I’m going after that bloke." Ceasing his wild gyrations, the driver of the car started off along Mount Albert Road, toward Mount Albert, at 60 miles an hour, with Mr. Watkinson following on his motorcycle. The car was zig-zagging from side to side, and according to the pursuers, narrowly missed collisions with other vehicles. It had eventually collided with a roped-off portion of the road. The car was tangled up with rope, signbords and iron standards, but the driver backed out, crossed to the other side of the road and started off again. Mr. Watkinson, by that time, was hot on the man’s track and called to him to stop. No notice was taken of the shouts of the pursuers, and Mr. Watkinson tried to hedge the car in to the side of the Toad and the driver M le-ttop. Mr. Watkinson ordered him out of the car p.nd told him to get into the side-car. The man was then driven to the Mount Albert Police Station, the car being left on the Mount Albert Road. At the police station Constable McKenzie had to carry the man inside, and he lay helpless on the floor until te was taken to the Central Police Station. The constable went out to the car, which he identified as that of Mr. Lauder, which had disappeared from Brown Street, Avondale, earlier in the afternoon. Martin proved a restive prisoner and, according to the police, he broke two lights in his c ell. There Is a further allegation that he obtained petrol for the car from a Newmarket garage by a false pretence.