Bank robbed by armed man

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 1

Bank robbed by armed man

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, January 13.

Police are still seeking an armed man who held up the Bank of New South Wales in Tuarangi Road, Grey Lynn, this afternoon and stole $BOO.

Pointing a pistol at the teller, Mr L. J. Brenton, the robber pushed a bag across the counter and said: “Fili it up.”

Mr Brenton, aged 21, stuffed money into the bag, which the robber grabbed before running out of the bank in the direction of nearby Barrington Road.

The only other person in the bank at the time was a bank messenger, but according to police he did not become involved in the robbery.

Within minutes detectives were at the scene and all available patrol cars were called in to cordon off the area.

According to reports received by the police the robber made off on foot towards Fowlds Park and for a time the search was concentrated on that area. Seen twice A couple who live near the scene of the hold-up may have seen the robber twice as he made his getaway. The couple, who asked not to be named, live in Ivanhoe Road and were parked outside the Bank of New South Wales in Tuarangi Road when the robbery took place.

The wife, aged 54, said that the first unusual thing they noticed was when the bank teller came running out into the street wearing only socks on his feet.

“He ran along the footpath and we wondered what was up. Then we realised someone had come out just before him and that the teller was looking for him. “We called out and said the man had gone down Barrington Road. I thought the

teller had probably overpaid him or something.” The couple then drove home and in Shirley Street they saw the man again. “He looked lean, young, fair—almost blond—had a scruffy appearance and seemed to be hassled,” said the wife.

When he reached the end of Shirley Street, the young man looked cautiously right and left before moving off in the direction of Great North Road.

“He was not running, but he was not losing time either. He had a black duffle bag and was hanging on to it as though he was protecting it,” she said.

The woman said that she telephoned the bank and they had passed her information to the police.