SAFE BLOWN OPEN

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20494, 10 May 1938, Page 6

SAFE BLOWN OPEN

HOROTIU POST OFFICE RESIDENTS HEAR EXPLOSION SMALL SUM MISSING Using a heavy charge of explosi. that completely blew the door off the safe, thieves were not very handsomely rewarded when they broke into th*e Horotiu Post Office early this morning. This was the third time that the Post Office had been burgled within a short period and for the third time there was little money in the safe. The thieves were not disturbed although the noise of the explosion was herd several hundred yards away. The Horotiu Post Office is situated on a side road about a quarter of a mile from the main south highway and is next to a general store. Across the road aTe the houses of fhe employees of the Railway Department, while farm houses are also adjacent. The acting-postmistress, Miss V. Hall, left the office shortly before 5.30 last evening when everthing was locked and the doors and windows were fastened. On arriving at the office this morning she noticed nothing unusual until she unlocked the back door and found the communicating door ajar. On entering the office Miss Hall found the safe blown open. Books and papers were in confusion on the floor and the little money that was in the office and safe were missing. On receiving advice of the burglary, Mr R. Sheen, acting-Chief Postmaster at Hamilton, notified the police and Detective J. Hayes and Constable R. Henry accompanied Mr Sheen to the scene. Admission was gained by the burglars by the use of a tommy on the back window’, the framimvork being badly splintered. No precautions were apparently taken to the sound of the explosion. Mr J. Christie, who was on duty at the Horotiu railway station 6ome three or four hundred yards away, heard the explosion at 3.25 and he went dowi> the line to investigate. He saw nothing suspicious and returned to the station.