"Heroic’ attempt

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32879, 30 March 1972, Page 1

"Heroic’ attempt

(N.Z. Press Association) TIMARU, Mar. 29. A woman cashier failed today in an attempt to stop an armed robbery and was beaten about the head by a masked man who made off with $224 in notes. The police described her attempt to foil the man as “heroic.” The robber, wearing a white plastic bag over his head with holes cut in it, entered the subscriptions office of the “Timaru Herald” just before 3 pan. He demanded money from Mrs B. C. Timbllck, the only person in the office. He was carrying what appeared to be a silver revolver. Mrs Timbllck told the man that there was no money in the office, as it was all kept in the main office next door. The man advanced behind the counter, but Mrs Timbllck struggled with him.

He struck her on the head with the revolver, and stuffed notes into his pocket from the cash drawer, before running from the room and apparently making his way out through a door at the back of the hall. Mrs Timbllck, taken to the Timaru Hospital, was treated for cuts, abrasions, and lacerations tn the right side of the head, and then allowed to go home. After the attack, Mrs Timbllck managed to reach the entrance of the building hall where she was noticed by a fellow employee of the company, and the alarm was raised. The police described the robber as being between 18 and 22 years of age, and of tall, slim build. He was wearing a green-coloured clip-on tie which Mrs Timblick ripped off in the struggle, and is now in the hands of the police.