Police trap catches two men

Press, 9 November 1976, Page 5

Police trap catches two men

PA Auckland Two would-be robbers — one of them armed with a knife — walked in to the Kaurilands Post Office on I Friday, and found themselves victims of a police trap. The men. who both wore masks, entered the small office soon after 3 p.m. and were surprised by a detective and a policewoman who had been waiting in a back room for more than an hour.

Their robbery attempt foiled, the men tried to escape. One of them, wielding a knife, was cornered by the detective as he tried to get out a back door. The 'other ran out on to the footpath. but he was held by a nearbv shop-owner until more police, who had been sitting m cars near the scene, arrived seconds later.

The postmistress and her assistant, said that they were more relieved than anything :when they saw' the masked men come through the door. “The police came here I about 2 o’clock and told us I that they had had a tip-off. land that there was going to be a hold-up,” he said.

“The detective and the woman described the two men to us, but told us they would not be armed. They then went and sat in the back room, and f agreed to nod my head to let them know when they came in.” A police spokesman would not comment on the trap other than to say that the two men were “dead unlucky.’’