DONNYBROOK AFTER MAN FOUND IN CAR

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31514, 31 October 1967, Page 1

DONNYBROOK AFTER MAN FOUND IN CAR

(New Zealand Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, October 30.

A Mount Albert resident fought the “biggest donnybrook” of his life early this morning after he found a man in his car and took him inside his house.

The fight raged through several rooms and ended with a headlong escape dive through a closed kitchen window.

Bruised and cut in several places, the car owner, Mr C. J. Atkins, aged 28, today told his story. “It was about 4.30 a.m. when I was awakened by someone trying to start the car,” he said. “The starter makes a noise which I yrould recognise anywhere and I leapt out of bed and rushed out the front door. “The bloke had taken the car down the drive and was out on the road. The engine seemed to have stalled. “I threw the door open and dragged him out. He was average height and looked to be in his twenties,” said Mr Atkins. BEGAN PLEADING

“We marched inside and he began pleading for my wife and me not to call the police. He said he would pay us or do anything. He said “I’ll get three years this time.” I told him that it took me three years to get the car. “My wife went off to ring the police. Then the fight started.”

Mr Atkins and the man punched and wrestled in the hallway for a minute or two. “At one stage he made a grab for a bag thdt he had with him. I thought he might have had a gun in it, but it turned out to be a torch. I kicked the bag away just in case,” said Mr Atkins.

“My wife grabbed, the torch and gave him a couple over the head with it. I got him under control and everything was quiet again. She went off to ring the police and the bloke asked for a drink of water.

“He was sweating a bit and shaking, so we went into the kitchen. He reached up to get a glass of water and grabbed a kettle of water instead.

“He swung round and hit me in the face with it. It was like a bulldozer. We fought through the kitchen, the (Un-

ing room, the hallway, and finally reached the kitchen again. BLOOD EVERYWHERE

“There was blood everywhere. I had a cut on my ear and the side of my nose from where he had been banging me with the kettle. The details are pretty hazy but it seemed to go on for ever.

"In the kitchen he wrenched free and dived through the window.” The man then ran off across some nearby railway lines and down a one-way street. “He would have beaten Snell down there,” said Mr Atkins. Shortly afterwards a police patrol car arrived.

A shoe was found underneath the kitchen window and blood was also found on the railway lines. The bag the man left yielded a torch, two sticks of gelignite, and some detonators.

Detectives tonight arrested a man who will appear in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court tomorrow charged with aggravated assault and being in possession of burglary implements. Today Mr Atkins stayed home and made arrangements for repairs to his house, several walls of which were badly marked by blood. His three-year-old daughter had slept through the whole episode.