DESPERATE ATTACK

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 48, 19 November 1932, Page 13

DESPERATE ATTACK

Man Cornered in Shop YOUTH GRAVELY HURT Father Receives Injuries FURIOUS RUSH WITH JEMMY Hearing the bell of the burglar alarm ringing in their grocery store, 15 The Parade, Island Bay, on Thursday night, Mr. J. Thomson, the shopkeeper and his son, Alec., aged ’about 19, went to investigate. They were attacked by a man who .struck out with a jemmy, ’the son being gravely injured. Mr. Thomson and. bis son were alone in the house at the rear, when shortly before 9 o’clock the bell of the burglar alarm on the shop's front door rang. Thinking that the appliance had gone wrong, Mr. Thomson senior decided to investigate, and on reaching the shop found a heavily-built man inside. He rushed forward, and the intruder hit at him with a jemmy, which, it is presumed, be had used, on the door. The man inflicted a nasty gash on Mr. Thomson’s left cheek, and with a second blow struck him across the head. The blood from this wound poured down over his eyes, and rendered him helpless. Mr. Thomson, shouted, loudly for help, and his son rushed forward. He dived for the intruder’s feet and brought him to the ground. In the scuffle the man hit him over the head, knocking him unconscious. The assailant, retreating through the shop door, dashed up Dee Street, which runs alongside the shop, and the street being deserted, made good his escape.

A noise at about 1 o’clock that morning aroused a neighbour. Getting out of bed, he made a search of his house and yard, without finding anybody. This incident has given rise to the suggestion that the desperate intruder might have been making a reconnaissance of the place where he was later to commit his crime.