Robber flees from woman grocer

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33121, 11 January 1973, Page 1

Robber flees from woman grocer

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, January 7 10.

A would-be hold-up man using a metal comb fled from a grocery shop in Dunedin today after being beaten off by the middle-aged woman who owned the shop.

At the height of the struggle, a young shop assistant telephoned her deaf grandmother instead of the police.

However, for the owner, Mrs Alice Burrell, the attempted robbery was no laughing matter. It was only after her assailant ran from the store tha* she saw the metal comb, which she had taken for a knife, lying on the shop floor. At 1.45 p.m., a slightlybuilt man in his early 20s entered the store on the corner of Surrey Street and Bayview Road. He asked a schoolgirl assistant, aged 15, if her father was in. The girl replied, “No,” and fetched Mrs Burrell.

The man then asked Mrs Burrell if he could buy some groceries on credit. She refused. because he gave her an address in another part of the city. The robber then seized her bv the throat and pulled

something shiny from his pocket, saying: “Give me all that money in the till, or I’ll kill you.” Mrs Burrell shouted to her assistant to go into a back room and get the key to the till. She knew the key was still in the till, but hoped the assistant would use a telephone in the other room to call the police. Mrs Burrell then grabbed what she thought was the man’s knife arm and began struggling with him. He broke free and ran into the other room, tearing the telephone from the assistant and hurling it on the floor.

He need not have bothered. The confused girl had rung her grandmother, and was having difficulty making herself understood, as the grandmother is deaf. The robber then ran for the front door, but Mrs Burrell grabbed him again, and after a short struggle he dropped his “knife.” He then ran out and jumped into a waiting car, but Mrs Burrell noted the registration number. The car, which had been reported stolen earlier in the day, was found by the police at Balclutha this evening with two occupants.