Chase in street after bank hold-up

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 1

Chase in street after bank hold-up

By

JEFF HAMPTON

Christmas shoppers chased and caught a man after a $lO,OOO hold-up at a bank in central Christchurch yesterday morning. The man was tackled and held down in Hereford Street, about 100 m from the Christchurch Central Police Station, just before 10 am. yesterday. The police were quickly on the scene and an arrest was made.

A spokesman for the Christchurch C.LB. said that a man, aged 22, would appear in the District Court today charged with aggravated robbery. The $10,090 taken from a teller in the Trusteebank Canterbury branch.in the Shades Arcade had been recovered, said the spokesman.

The drama started when a man passed a note to a teller at the bank. It said that he was armed and demanded money. Onlookers said that the man was carrying an object covered with a cloth.

He took the money in a bank bag and ran into the crowded arcade, between Cashel Street and Hereford Street.

The man was pursued by bank staff and, later, shoppers. “He came steaming in here flat tack,” said a shop attendant at Nicolas the Jeweller, who asked , not to be named. '

“He ran straight into the mirror. His head went back, he stood there for a second, and then he made off,” she said.

As a result, a full-length mirror in the shop was broken. The man appeared to be stunned, but not injured, said the attendant. The solidly-built man wore a scarf round his neck and carried an object similar to a bank bag. Still pursued, the man ran from the arcade and got part-way across Hereford Street when he ran into the side of a slow-moving car, said another shop attendant who saw the incident.

“Everybody converged on

him. About six people held him down while we phoned the police,” said the woman, who also asked not to be named.

The man pursued did not have a chance, she said. He was stopped by a Vigorous “rugby-style” tackle. A bag containing a knife was taken from him. The man was taken to the footpath and detained there by several young men until the police arrived. - Meanwhile, he pleaded with another woman who saw the incident to tell the men not to hurt him.

“They were using a fair bit of force,” she said.

The police arrived quickly, as a big crowd started to gather. They handcuffed the man and removed him, said the woman. Pictures, page 5