SHOT FIRED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 308, 28 December 1940, Page 9

SHOT FIRED.

"BANDIT" SURRENDERS CAPTURE IN DENSE BUSH. (I!\ Aii) MELBOURNE, Dec. 21. A ma ii Ixdievcd to be "the Snowy Kiut bandit" mm rendered to police to-day after ii winning shot had been liied ;ii liim. He gave his name as- Alan Torney. J'J. a native of Avoca, and his uri-iijiiii imi a- ;i bush worker. Tiit- Snowy l!i\cr bandit raided Sardine t reek T-etilemeut for food on December Hi. He allegedly fired -hots at women md chiidicn. I lie capture took place in dense bush live mile- from Orbost, on the Bouaiig Highway. Three Forestry Coin mission worker-. K. Downing. Arthur Price and Alan Hammond, saw -moke coining from ;i hollow log. Downing said jokingly, "There> the bandit." Then he saw "a man emerge from the log. carrying rifle-. The finest workers, who were unarmed, took cover. Downing sneaked away on his bicycle to it police cam)). Constables • hick Morrison and ,1. Spring grabbed rifles mill revolvers and "double-dinked" on Downing's bicycle to where the other men were watching. The watched man. saw Morrison and took up a rifle. Morrison called. "Come out of that; we've got you." The man replied, "Come and get me if yon can." Morrison fired a .32 bullet close to the man's head, and shouted a warning. The man saw Constable Spring approaching. He dropped his rifle and held out his hands for the hancrcuffs. Three loaded rifles lay on a stump behind which the man had sheltered. The man told the police he tried to commit suicide two night ago. He had wounds in the forehead and shoulder. He was weak and dejected, but not in a very bad way. He had been cooking porridge in a jam tin over a small fire. The man was taken to Sardine Creek, where he is alleged to have confessed to a scries of food robberies and holdups. He is of slight, wiry build, with dark hair and a Hitler moustache. Large tears in his clothes had been mended with string. He alleged that he "went bush" in the "Monaro mountains in Xew South Wales iSome time ago, and in the past fewmonths had travelled more than 600 miles through wild bush country. He will">*tot be charged until medical reports have been received of his mental and physical condition.