Armed robber gets away with $45,000

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 7

Armed robber gets away with $45,000

By

BARRY CLARKE

The armed robber who got away with $45,000 from the Halswell Trust Bank yesterday may have targeted the branch after failing to hold up a security van parked outside. Ten customers, including two children, were forced to lie on the floor while a female teller was ordered to hand over money. The gun, a cut-down rifle or pistol, went off during the robbery, but the police are unsure if it was deliberate. It had been placed in a bag when it discharged. No-one was hurt. The robber arrived at the bank on a motor-cycle just after 9.30 a.m. as an armoured Crown Security van laden with cash was

finishing a drop. He confronted a security officer, but the driver, still in the van, drove off, leaving the pair struggling outside the bank, said Detective Sergeant Graeme Scott yesterday. “It is quite possible he was after the van. When the driver saw what was going on he drove off so he and the rest of the money wouldn’t become part of a robbery,” he said. It was possible the robber had mistimed the departure of the security van, said Detective Sergeant Scott. The man got the better of the security officer and forced him into the bank. “He waved the firearm around inside the bank and demanded money

from the teller. He told the customers to lie down. "He made various threats to the teller. She produced the goods.” The offender was seen leaving by a man using a money machine outside the bank, who yelled “robbery,” and told nearby shop staff to telephone the police. The man fell off the motor-cycle — stolen from Cathedral Square — before riding off along Nicholls Road, into Halswell Junction Road, along McTeigue Road and either turning right or left into Carmen Road. Every available police patrol in Christchurch was sent to set a cordon. A Royal New Zealand Air Force Iroquois helicopter scanned shingle pits and

paddocks in the area for the offender, or motorcycle, which may have been abandoned. The bank was reopened at 3 p.m. yesterday. The offender is described as a European, aged 17 to 24, between 173 cm (sft Bin) and 185 cm (6ft lin) tall, olive skin, long face and possibly of thin to average build. He was wearing a red full-face crash helmet, distinctive blue with teal inset wind jacket, black jeans, dark gloves and running shoes. The motor-cycle is a blue 185 cc Suzuki, registration 96LHW. It has not been recovered.