BAD MEN IN SYDNEY RAIDS ON HOTELS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 71, 20 September 1912, Page 7

BAD MEN IN SYDNEY RAIDS ON HOTELS

VIOLENCE USED; MONEY STOLEN TRADESPEOPLE VICTIMISED, By Telegraph.— Pre«B AeMdation.-Copyrlght. (Received September 20, 9.40 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. A man armed with a revolver visited three hotels in the city yesterday. At the first he paid two visits, threatening the licensee on each occasion. At the second he was accompanied by two mates. A customer who was flashing gold in a parlour received a wound on the forehead from a knuckle-duster, but fled. The three men followed, firing one shot without effect. They returned to the bar and ordered drinks. The landlady refused to supply them, and the men then departed. The climax occurred at Durrack's Hotel, at the corner of Elizabeth and Campbell streets, at four o'clock. A man with his face swathed in a handkerchief, and carrying a revolver, burst into the bar, rushed to the till, nnd helped himself to the contents. The licensee, aged 72, ' dosed with the intruder and gripped his wrist. The m«ift freed himself and decamped. The licensee pursued and grappled with the robber, whose revolver went off. The sound of the shot attracted two policemen, who arrested the man. Reports of other robberies continue to be received. The licensee of a suburban hotel was robbed of £52. A Chinese gardener in the same Buburb lost £50. In another suburb Masonic jewels valued at £20 were stolen, and m a third suburb £25 worth of jewellery was secured. A large number of tradespeople have been victimised. A man giving the name of a prominent client telephoned an order, stating that a boy would call for goods > at a certain establishment. Unsuspectingly the goods were handed over to the boy, over £100 worth being obtained in this way.