OLD MAN ROBBED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 98, 28 April 1930, Page 7

OLD MAN ROBBED.

COWARDLY ASSAULT. ATTACKED IN MOTOR CAR. CAN YOU CHANGE A FIVER? SEQUEL TO RACE" MZfiTING. After being cowardly assaulted in a motor car in Commerce Street on Saturday evening, an elderly man residing at Papatoetoe was robbed of £4 in banknotes by a young man. The assault occurred following a sliort conversation between the two men, who met in Customs Street about G. 30. Both were quite sober, and there is no suggestion that the affair was the outcome of a drunken brawl. "I suppose it serves me right/' said the man who was robbed wlieu seen by a "Star" reporter to-day. He said ha was 68 years of age, and had attended the Avondale races on Saturday. '"'Just before the big race, on my way to the totalisator I was making up my mind what I would back. I was murmuring to myself, '2vo. 1 looks good.' Just then a man alongside me, who .had evidently heard mo, said, 'Yes, I think that will run well.' That man was the same man that assaulted and robbed me in the car. I did not see him at the races again, but shortly after six o'clock on Saturday night I alighted from a bus near the intersection of Queen and Customs Streets, and was walking over to Commerce Street to catch my bus to Papatoetoe when the same man approached me. 'How did you get'on?' was his first question. 'Oh, I dropped a couple of quid, as usual,' I told him. He then said, 'I won about £33, so I did all right.' 'Where are yoii going to,' lie then asked me. I told him I was waiting for a Papatoetoe bus, whereupon the stranger said he had his car, and would drive me home, as he was going near Papatoetoe." The old man said he agreed to accept a lift, and walked further along the street, which was full of parked motor cars. "This one's mine," the stranger said to him, walking towards a car and opening the door. "Jump in," was his next remark. "I got in the car," said the Papatoetoe resident, "and then lie got in. He said he desired to get a bottle of whisky before he went home, and asked me. if I could change a fiver. I put my hand in my right hand trouser pocket and brought out four £1 note.?. I put them back again, and as I was about to put' my hand in my other pocket, which contained a larger roll, the man struck me a heavy blow on the face, inserted his hand in my right hand pocket, grabbed the notes and ran away from the car. I followed him as quickly as I could, but lost him near the Waverley Hotel." "It might ..have been a lot worse, all the same," added the old man, "if he had taken what was in the other pocket. As it is, I have lost four notes and am left with a good black eye." Ho said there was no one about Commerce Street at the time.