COWARDLY THIEVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 November 1931, Page 4

COWARDLY THIEVES

ATTACK OLD WOMAN. MELBOURNE, October 27. Two thieves, after they had brutally assaulted an elderly woman and a housemaid, bound and gagged them, locked them in separate rooms, stole money and other articles of a total value of £2OO from the house of Mr Bruti Gardini, motor engineer, 309 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield, this .afternoon. The thieves gained entrance to the house by pretending they had come to deliver an article of furniture from a city shop. To support their story they carried an article wrapped in hessian into the hall. Subsequently it was found that this was a kerosene tin filled with bricks. When the door was opened by Mr Gardini’s mother, who is aged about 80 years, one of the men grasped her by the arms and thrust her backwards through a door into the lounge. A gag was pushed roughly into her mouth; her apron was torn off and her arms and legg were bound with it. The men left the room and locked the door. They ran to the back of the house where they were met by an Italian housemaid, Bella Dino. The men beat Miss Dino about the face and head and drove her into the kitchen, where they bound and gagged her. Both Miss Dino’s eyes were blackened, her nose was bruised, and her lips were cut. The men then locked Mr Gardini’s Alsation dog in the bathroom, and after taking money and various articles they drove away in a motor car.