Woman Bashed And Robbed In Shop

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32194, 13 January 1970, Page 10

Woman Bashed And Robbed In Shop

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Jan.ll. A woman dairy proprietor was bashed and robbed in her Ponsonby Road shop in Auckland this morning by somebody she did not- even see.

The woman, Mrs Grace Margaret Bennett, said tonight the first she could remember of the incident was waking up in an ambulance. Both her eyes were blackened in the assault, there were bruises round her mouth and a cheek bone was broken.

i “I walked out of the door ' to answer the shop,” she said tonight, still obviously suffering from her experience. I “One of them must have ■ stepped over the light (a I photo-electric cell in the doorway which operates a buzzer when somebody walks past it) and been waiting behind the door while the other walked into the shop." As she stepped through the doorway of her living room into the shop one of the assailants apparently grabbed her around the mouth, then pushed or knocked her back. An apron she had been wearing was found soaked with blood, and there were blood stains over the carpet inside the door. I “I apparently managed to get outside, and was seen by, a neighbour, but I can’t remember anything about that,” said Mrs Bennett The neighbour saw two men, either Maoris or Islanders, leaving the shop shortly before Mrs Bennett came out. The robbers took about $l5 from the till.