$1M extortion note to Wool worths

Press, 30 December 1980, Page 1

$1M extortion note to Wool worths

NZPA-Reuter Sydney The Woolworths chain of stores received an extortion note yesterday, signed “Mr Dunmore,” after another bomb was found in one of its shops, police sa: ’ Three Woolworths stores were bombed earlier this month.. The only explosion during trading hours, in a big shop in central Sydney on Christmas Eve, slightly injured two, after thousand of shoppers and staff had been moved out after a telephone warning. The police declined to give any details of the extortion note, but a Sydney newspaper reported that it threatened more bombings during trading hours with less warning unless Woolworths paid $1 million in cash, gold, and diamonds. The latest bomb was discovered by a security man who noticed a broken glass door panel in a Woolworths store in Liverpool, west of Sydney, late Sunday night. Art Army bomb disposal team re-

moved a ticking cardboard package for examination. A police spokesman said, they were trying to establish similiarties between the package and those which exploded at three other Woolworths stores this month. Senior policemen would not say when the latest bomb was due to explode. 7...; • 7 ,7 Police said the quantity of gelignite it contained was in “a very poor” condition and,.was taken, to Hols worthy: Army Base for disposal. Army experts took about two hours to complete the . work, twice using the Army bomb disposal robot to shake and loosen the package. .The Woolworths security guard, Mr Robert Smith, told the police he had checked the store at 9 p.m. on Sunday when all was well. When he returned at 10.30 p.m. he discovered the broken window and the package. “When I heard it ticking I turned and walked out,” Mr Smith said. Woolworths has offered

$A250,000 the biggest reward in Australian history for, information leading to the arrest', of the bombers. It has also hired private guards to increase, protection for its 256 stores in New South Wales. The ’ police believe the bombings may be . connected with an attempt in October i extort $BOO,OOO from Woolworths with a threat to poison foodstuffs. . , ’ They have issued identikit pictures of a. man who delivered that ‘ extortion note to Woolworths and of a man seen acting suspiciously , in • the Sydney store before the Christmas Eve bombing. One Woolworths store opened late yesterday and another was evacuated after telephoned threats that bombs had been planted. But nothing was found. The calls were apparently hoaxes.; The police have received dozens of hoax calls since the Woolworths Town Hall store bombing in central Sydney on .Christmas

Eve. The police have condemned a Sydney newspaper which published the code name of the men responsible for the Woolworths bombings. A letter from the bombers appeared yesterday afternoon in the Sydney afternoon dailies, the “Sun” and the “Daily Mirror.” The “Sun” deleted the name from its version, but the “Daily Mirror 1 ’ printed the name, "Mr Dunmore.” Dunmore is a town on the New South Wales south coast from which 215 sticks of gelignite were stolen in September. The police received the letter before the explosion on Christmas Eve and were using the name as a vital clue in their hunt for the bombers. The letter says that police will immediately know the origin of explosions when they are informed of the code name, “Mr Dunmore.” A police spokesman said the name was their main clue to the identity of the bombers.