On a Sunday two weekends ago, late night strollers on Beryl Street may have noticed the incongruous but nonetheless charming sight of a couple pushing a pram through the dark of the night.
A closer inspection would have revealed the pram was ferrying no baby at all, but a safe.
Earlier, CCTV cameras in a nearby business recorded a gentleman breaking into the premises and removing the company strongbox while the woman waited outside.
The couple then hurried to a nearby dwelling, where the ‘baby’ disgorged some $20000.
The following day, the man appeared as an enthusiastic customer at a Broken Hill automotive shop, where
he purchased a shiny new motorbike, with cash.
Sometime later, we are told, he came within a whisker of being caught; police inspecting a premises found too many residents for COVID comfort, and moved him along. He was last seen taking his bike by the handlebars and removing himself from the scene with some haste.
And that was the last of his local appearances, the heat in The Hill having evidently become too much for him, suspected sightings in Ivanhoe and Leeton suggesting this guy is on the move.
Back home, the whole affair must’ve come as an awful shock to his wife – not just that police are after her man, but that they’ve also spoken to his girlfriend.
What’s more, the woman in the CCTV footage is neither wife nor girlfriend, but some other woman entirely.
Meanwhile, police are after a man on a motorcycle – a man in a hurry, though probably not in a hurry to come home.
This article was first published on 2 October 2021.
