AUDACIOUS CRIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1938, Page 7

AUDACIOUS CRIME

SUM OF £l6OO STOLEN ON RANGITATA REMOVED FROM SAFE DURING CAPTAIN’S ABSENCE. DUPLICATE KEY APPARENTLY USED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. December 13. A sensation was caused on the waterfront and on board the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liner Rangitata shortly before noon to day when it was discovered that £l6OO was missing from a safe in the captain’s cabin. The robbery was a daring one and showed evidence of having been carefully planned. The master, Captain Edward Holland, was absent from his ship during the "weekend. He closed the safe on Friday evening, and on his ring of keys he kept the only two keys that fitted the safe. When he reopened the safe at 11.30 today he was startled to find that all the currency in the safe, £3OO in travellers’ cheques and £l3OO in Bank of England notes had been removed.

The safe showed no evidence of having been tampered with, and it was apparent that a duplicate or skeleton key had been used. The money was the property of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Though Captain Holland returned to the Rangitata on Sunday night he had no occasion to open the safe, so that there is no indication when the robbery took place. The loss was immediately reported to the manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company and simultaneously the Queen’s Wharf police were informed. Detectives hurried to the Rangitata, which is berthed at Central Wharf, and an,immediate investigation was begun. It is believed that during the captain's absence from the ship the cabin containing the safe was kept locked. One theory to how the safe could have been opened withoutactually using one of the two keys which are always in the possession of the captain is that a wax mould or impression could possibly have been taken from the captain’s key. There would have been few opportunities for the thief to have even brief access to this key, but it is possible that a clever thief might have been able to make use of such a chance when the master was taking a bath or was asleep. His personal bathroom is some little distance away from his cabin and the thief could possibly have entered and got possession of the key and taken an im-1 pression without attracting attention. It is quite common for large sums of money to be kept in the safes of the captain and purser on large passenger ships. However, such thefts as the audicious robbery on the Rangitata' are rare so far as New Zealand ports are concerned.

When a reporter called on Captain Holland he had just made a long statement which detectives had taken on a typewriter in his cabin. He said to the reporter that he could form no theory as to how the robbery had been carried out. The money had just vanished and there were no marks on the safe to suggest that it had in any way been tampered with. The manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company in Auckland, Mr F. H. Gifford, was also at a loss to explain how the robbery occurred.