PISTOL FIRED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1939, Page 6

PISTOL FIRED

DURING POLICE INQUIRY IN CHRISTCHURCH

TWO MEN ELUDE CAPTURE,

INVESTIGATION OF PETROL THEFTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. February G. A shot was fired but no one was hurt when detectives accosted two men in Montreal Street, near Hazeldean Road, last night. The men escaped. It was officially announced today that no one was hurt, and that the police had not fired the shot. The officers gave chase and the two men separated in their flight. One ran down Hazeldean Road, and the other turned north, later rejoining his companion. Though the detectives made a hard chase of it, the men escaped. Detectives C. P. Burns and Watts, with a constable, were investigating reports of petrol thefts from city storehouses. At 10 o’clock last evening they went by car to an oil company’s premises in Montreal Street. They saw two men standing nearby and spoke to them. Then the officers were startled by the flash and crack of a pistol. A motor-truck was later discovered parked nearby, and the detectives took possession of it.

This morning Senior-Sergeant J. Bickerdike .said that the shot had not been fired by his men. The police were making further inquiries into the case. :

For some time past, added SeniorSergeant Bickerdike, the police had been receiving complaints of petrol thefts in the city. Inquiries had been made, and in some cases watches had been kept. Detectives Burns and Watts had been making inquiries of this nature last evening.

An official of one of the oil companies this afternoon said that five 44-gallon drums of petrol, valued at £22, had been stolen from their store on either Friday or Saturday evening. Other.,oil company officials said that they had not suffered, though one added that petrol had been stolen some four or five months ago.