‘Wild West’ attackers frighten manager

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 4

‘Wild West’ attackers frighten manager

PA Wellington A Wellington bottleshop manager was menaced by

four masked men yesterday in an attack he described as like something out of the wild west. The men, all wearing red and white polka-dot handkerchiefs over their faces, burst in to Preston’s- Wines and Spirits, in central Wellington, at 2.30 a.m. They used a window broken in a burglary earlier in the evening. Mr David Evans, aged 33, was cleaning up the mess left behind by the burglars when the second wave of plunderers arrived.

“The‘police had just left after coming to investigate the break-in,” Mr Evans said. “I was shovelling glass into a rubbish tin outside when I saw a shadowy figure lurking across the road.

“I rushed inside to phone the police, but I had barely hung up when these guys came bursting in. “It was bloody crazy. They all had these handkerchief masks on like something out of the wild west. They ripped the phone out and threw it in the street

and kicked in another window for good measure.” They stole several dozen cans of beer, a number of bottles of spirits and a tin containing donations- to a cancer fund. Mr Evans had little time to recover from the shock before he faced another fright when an early model American car arrived soon afterwards. .■ : “Four or five heavies came over and poked, their heads in the window,” he said.

The arrival of the police forestalled any further drama for Mr Evans, who described the experience as a nightmare. “It seems to be a game to these hoods, but it’s no game to me. I was very, very frightened,” he said. The police arrested a 16-year-old and charged him with robbery after Mr Evans identified ' him, and are still looking for the others involved. About 50 cans of beer and four dozen assorted bottles of spirits were taken in the incidents.