Elderly woman fights robbers

Press, 19 July 1976, Page 6

Elderly woman fights robbers

PA Auckland i Two strongly-built would-'' be robbers proved to be no match for frail, elderly Mrs| E. Z. Nixon, who fought the I pair off as they attempted to! rob her Sandringham dairy late yesterday. The two masked men, one wearing a yellow mask with: eveholes cut in it. and thej other a black mask, forced ■ their way in the back door of the dairy as the .Nixons were clearing up about 10 < p.m Mrs Nixon was using the' back door to go outside to i deposit an empty soft drinks crate in the back yard when'' the men. one of them waving !' a toy plastic pistol, pushed in. "They pushed in and > I pushed me back in,” said Mrs Nixon. “One of them had', a gun, but I could seen T\tt it was just a toy. ai: plastic thing.

i “They told met to shut up." she said. But when one of the men clamped his hand over her 'mouth, she “yelled like anything.” As the men, both described as big Europeans, grabbed her. she hit furiously at their . chests and shoulders. Her shout alerted her husIband. Mr R. R. Nixon, who was washing the dairy floor! in the front of the shop. ' “He came in and they took 'one look at dad and they 'took off out the door.” said i Mrs Nixon. ' “I think they thought I j i must have been alone be- j i cause they really took off.” • The men apparently then i ran down neighbouring Cal-' t gary Avenue. Police arrived with tracker) dogs and followed a trail that j ■seemed to end by the kerb.' suggesting that a car had been used for a getaway. I