VICTIM'S STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1932, Page 3

VICTIM'S STORY.

"CAME STRAIGHT AT ME." NOTICED MEN EARLIER. GRAPHIC STORY OF ATTACK. A graphic story was told by Mr. R. Dias, the victim of the assault and robbery. As he related his experiences he gently fingered a swelling near his lefc ear. Tho story is best told in his own words. "I left the works .just before half ]iast eleven to go to the Commercial Bank to pick up the wages," said Mr. Dias, who is of small stature and under lOst in weight. "When I was a little way along the street I noticed a roughlydressed man standing on the kerb. Across the road on the other footpath were two other men, both of them shabbily dressed. They did not appear to take any particular notice of me, but something about their appearance and their movements made me form tho opinion that they were up to no good. All three of the men were big. "Having drawn the wages I left the bank to walk back to the works, about 20 minutes to twelve. I had no bag, but had the money in my inside coat pocket. The wages were in £1 notes made up in bundles of 20. Nothing hap-

pened as I walked up Victoria Street, but when I had crossed Hobson Street j and in sight of the works I noticed that the three men I had seen on my way down were still there. All three were on the footpath along which I was walking. One appeared to be looking into a shop window, another, who appeared to be an Islander or a Maori, was standing in the middle of the footpath, and the third was on the kerb. Struck on Head. u "I kept on walking," said Mr. Dias, "until I was almost level with the men. The dark-skinned man then suddenly came straight at me and hit me a heavy blow on the side of the head, just below the left ear. I don't think the man was armed, but from the way my ear was cut I imagine he was wearing either a thick ring or a knuckle duster. "After being struck I staggered and fell on the footpath near the doorway of an empty shop. Tlie three men then pounced on ine and went through my pockets. They did not hit me again, and it was all over in a fewseconds. The men took live bundles of notes out of my inside pocket, but overlooked a sixth bundle. They also took a handkerchief out of my coat pocket, and about £5 in silver was scattered over the footpath. "Immediately the men had got the money they got off me and raced away. I looked up just in time to see the tall man who had been standing on the kerb as I approached jump on to the running board of a three-seater motor car, painted blue, which ■ had apparently come up from the direction of Ponsonby. I did not sec where the other two men went. They may have got into the car, but I didn't see them. The car disappeared at a great rate across Hobson Street.

"None of the men spoke as they were robbing me," said Mr. Dias, who said that he thought he would have no trouble in identifying the men if he saw them again. "At the time of the robbery there were a number of people standing about, but none did anything to help me. They just looked on."

Mr. Dias, who had to receive medical attention after the assault, added that ho had been drawing the wages and walking back with it to the works every Friday for years.