ARMED HOLD-UP AT RAPAHOE

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 February 1947, Page 6

ARMED HOLD-UP AT RAPAHOE

Hotel Room Incident: Intruder Escapes - ■ Awakened at 2.45 o’clock this morning by the switching on of the light in their bedroom, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Stewart, of the Rapahoe Hotel, were confronted by an armed, masked man. At the point of a rifle, the intruder ordered Mr. and Mrs. Stewart to move into a corner of the bedroom, apparently overlooking the fact that there was a door in the corner, partly obscured by a wardrobe. Mr. Stewart was first to comply with J the command to move info the corner, and while the intruder was watching Mrs. Stewart, he succeeded in slipping through the door into the dining-room.

In the meantime, Mrs Stewart had called out, awakening two boarders in the hotel and, with Mr Stewart having made his escape from the bedroom, the intruder became' alarmed and ran away. The police were communicated' with by telephone and an immediatel watch was placed on the Greymouth- ■ Westport coastal highway, in case: the armed man attempted to use a, moto.r car for a get-away. I' Disappeared in Darkness j A party comprising Detective- ■ Sergeant C. H. Davis, Detective B. H. ( Constable, Sergeants H. O. L. Hansen I and B. Wootton (Greymouth) and ; Constable W. J. Theyers (Runanga) ' reached Rapahoe shortly after the; alarm was given and an unsuccessful j search was made for the intruder, • who disappeared in the darkness. j Mr Stewart is the licensee of the ' hotel, which is situated in a rather isolated position on a triangle of, land lying between the highway and' the foreshore at Rapahoe, . seven miles from Greymouth. The highway : does not actually pass the hotel, but | there is a by-road, making a detour round the hotel and joining the highway a few chains to the north and south. There are no other occupied buildings close to the hotel. Mr. Stewart declined to com- • ment on the occurrence when j approached this morning. Al- ( though no details of the intruder’s conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are available, it appears that'robbery was the motive. It is understood that the week-end takings were in the safe, amounting to a consid- ; erable sum of money, and that . the keys were in Mr. Stewart’s I clothes.

The intruder had his face disguised, although it is not yet clear whether he was wearing a cloth mask or had his face blackened and obscured by some other method. He was carrying a rifle, believed to be of a fairly large calibre. May Have Had Associate. Only one intruder was seen by Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, but it is possible that there was an associate. When Mr. Stewart escaped through the bedroom door, the man who had issued the commands is believed to have called out a warning. No 'motor-car was seen in the vicinity by the occupants of the hotel and it has been established that no car proceeded north on the highway after the hold-up. An armed party kept a ( watch on the road at Barrytown after the alarm was given from Rapahoe, but it was fruitless. No Motor-Car Seen. A service car left Greymouth for Westport at 3 a.m. and the only vehicle it passed on the road was on. similar legitimate business. Although there was a sufficient lapse of time between the intruder’s escape from the hotel and the service car leaving Greymouth for a fastmoving car to have got off on to a by-road, the margin would be small, and the belief is held that the intruder (or intruders) approached and left the hotel on foot. The Inspector of Police at Greymouth, Mr. M. J. Angland, to-day confirmed that the first search by the police party had been unsuccessful, but added that full inquiries were still being made.