EXCITING CHASE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1939, Page 3

EXCITING CHASE

AFTER YOUTHS IN MOTOR CAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI. January 8. A night in the open fleeing from the police and a 70-mile-an-hour dash through the main street of Wanganui are said to have been among the experiences of three Palmerston North youths who are alleged to have converted a car in Featherston Street. Palmerston North, yesterday. They were apprehended at 11 o’clock this morning near Waitotara. The Wanganui police were notified of the approach of the youths in the car by a message from Palmerston North about 5 p.m. yesterday. Inspector D. D. Burdett, of the Main Highways Board, went to Putiki to intercept the car, but was passed. He followed it into Wanganui, where, it is said the youths sped across the Town Bridge shortly before 7 p.m. at 55 miles an hour, accelerated to 70 miles an hour through the Avenue, grazed a post rounding a curve at the foot of St John’s Hill at 50 miles an hour, and then, leaving the car in Park Road, St John’s Hill, disappeared into some lupins near Virginia Lake. The Wanganui police spent the night searching the surroundings of Virginia Lake, but the youths were stopped, travelling on foot, near Waitotara by the Waverly police. They will be charged in the Magistrates’ Court, Wanganui, tomorrow morning with converting the car, which was owned by Mr F. R. Thornlea, Palmerston North, and which was slightly damaged when it struck the post at the foot of St John’s Hill.