£259 TAKEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 126, 31 May 1939, Page 9

£259 TAKEN.

POST OFFICE ROBBED.

MAN CLUBBED WITH GUN. RAIDERS ESCAPE IN CAR. SYDNEY, May 26. Masked gunmen robbed the post office at I! and wick Military Hospital of £259 pension money. The 74-year-old father of the postmistress, who resisted, was bashed on the head with a revolver. The bandits escaped in a waiting car. The postmistress, Mrs. Cora Ormsbv, 08, was attending to pensioners, about 11 a.m., when a man with a white handkerchief over his face entered the post office and half closed the door. "I thought it was a joke until he raised a revolver and said, 'Stand back,' " said Mrs. Ormsby. "A second man, also masked and-with a-revolver, then entered. He leapt over the counter and ran to the till. He was carying a bag."

Threat to Shoot. Mrs. Ormsbv's father, Mr. Thomas Coughlan, was pushed over by this man. His head struck a bucket. Mrs. Ornisbv shouted for help and dashed for the telephone. One of the bandits threatened to shoot. "I ran to the administrative office for help, expecting to feel a bullet in my back," she said. In the post office Mr. Coughlan regained his feet. "I grabbed a teapot half full of hot tea and walked towards a man at the till," he said. *1 could hear a voice say, 'Shoot him.' I heard a couple of clicks as if a revolver had misfired. I brought the teapot down with all my force on the head of the man at i the till. "Terrific Knock." "The next moment the second man, whom I had scarcely noticed, jumped on to the counter anil irave me a terrific knock 011 the head with the barrel of hirevolver. Down I went, and remembered ,no more."

David Lewis, a hospital inmate, darted at the man who robbed the till, but the bandit dashed a cash bag in his face. Carrying revolvers, the two men raced to the car, whose alarmed occupants had been continuously sounding the horn. Car Found. Dr. Shaw, dental surgeon, ran to his car and tried to overtake the bandits. He lost sight of their car when it turned down a side street. At 5 p.m. the car was found abandoned in Francis Street, Newtown. It had been stolen from Stanmore on Wednesday. Over the original number plates were fixed those of another car which was stolen weeks ago.