The safe blowers

In the late 1920’s a mini crime wave was being reported in all the New Zealand papers. They were called the safe blowers.
In November 1929 they blew the strong room door off at the Kiwi Diary company in Christchurch - getting away with £30. They were believed to have got in about midnight - possibly with a skeleton key.
It was the sixth similar crime in two weeks.
Also hit were the White Star brewery, where a heavy explosive charge was put in the keyhole and blown, the key lock was blown clear off the door and embedded itself in an opposite wall.
The Jarrah timber company, and a coal merchant were also targets.
But it seemed this particular type of crime was happening all over the country. Earlier in 1929 - in Dunedin safe-blowers got into a post office. Then they hit a cabinet minister's local office.
In Auckland, several butcher’s shops and a bottle merchant had doors blown while in August of 1929 £60 was taken from State Coal Depot.
In 1930 in New Plymouth at least two including a furniture shop where they got £840.
So was a gang of ruthless safe-blowers operating up and down the country? Well, no not really. It was several pairs all using the same methods.
The first pair was caught in Auckland in February 1930. William James Leslie and Jack Edward Peters were sentenced in the Auckland Supreme Court to three (Leslie) and two (Peters) years jail.
They had been spotted out on the street at night and pounced on by police who found them in possession of gelignite fuses and other instruments.
While in Napier, Joseph Coyle and Edward George Stanley Elliott had tried to get into the Napier Railway Station office. They were caught virtually on the scene and later explosives were found in one of their homes.
Then in June 1935 safe-blowers hit Hays Ltd, a draper in Christchurch and got £400 in Christchurch. It would be the crime that finished the rush of safe-blowers.
Albert William Gauntlett was born in India to father Albert and mother Margaret on June 9, 1908. At some point the family came to New Zealand.
Along with Ralph Crosy - also known as Trevor Foote (from Australia) - they led police a merry chase - after they broke into Hays - police became interested in the journey of a Christchurch taxi which headed north.
Phones in police stations rang up the South Island as police followed its progress all the way to Picton. There the police waited, thinking the pair were headed for the ferry to Wellington. When they missed the sailing they booked into the Oxley’s Hotel where they were kept under surveillance. Police caught the pair of them asleep in their beds.
Most of the money was recovered and the two men were given a police escort back to Christchurch.
A jury found them guilty. Both got two years. Justice Northcroft said they appeared to have embarked on a life of crime.
Albert married Patricia in 1958 and died the following year in November 1959, he is buried in Mangere Lawn Cemetery. After a criminal life he had apparently settled down.
Picture by Jason Dent.