The Late Bank Robbery.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 217, 3 November 1888, Page 3

The Late Bank Robbery.

Tiifre was (says the Sydney Telegraph of the 16th inst.) great commotion in Balmain yesterday afternoon, owing to an extraordinary attempt to rob the local branch of the English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered Bank. Shortly before three o’clock Mr. Caidwell, the teller, heard someone shut the outside door, and thinking it was the junior clerk, who was in the habit of doing so on his return from Sydney, he went out to the door to tell the youth not to close it, as the clock had not struck three. He was met at the inner glass door by a man who put a revolver to his head and told hi n to hold up his hands. Taken by surprise, h • did as he was t-»ld, and the mm next ordered him to follow him, at the same time backing through an inner door to behind the counter. Arriving there, the man was üb’e to see the manager, Mr Druce, seated at his table in his own room. He immediately turned the revolver on to him, telling him that if he moved he would fire. Mr Caldwell, being relieved from the barrel of the revolver endeavored to move to the place where his own revolver was kept, but the man was too quick for him, and turning the revolvtrjagain on Mr Cal dwell, ordered him to go into the manager's room. The man then said that there was a third person in the bank (Mr Ridings, an inspector, who was making the usual half-yearly inspection). This gentleman he also ordered into the manager’s room, pointing the revolver at his breast as he went. In this interval Mr Druce, the manager, rushed out of his room into the space set aside for the public, and dodged the robber in and out of his room, there being two doors, which enabled him to do so. A customer (Mr Thorpe) of the bank came in at this juncture, and was astonished at Mr Druce s movements. The robber then presented his revolver at Mr Thorpe, who then ran out of the bank to look for a policeman. The robber, evidently seeing that with so many present it was getting hot work, cleared out of the bank, himself nearly col-

liding with another bank customer, Mr Sindel, draper, George-street, Sydney. That gentleman, seeing that something was wrong, and noticing the revolver, gave chase after the robber. Mr Caldwell, and a number of other townsmen joined in. Being hotly pursued, for about half a mile, the man turned round and flourished his revolver at the foremost persons, and Mr Caldwell’threw a stone at him, hitting him on the head. This rather stupified the man., He ran again, bat did not make much speed, and was • vertaken in Bay-street, near Mort’s Dock, by Mr Sindel and Mr J. Smith. He was securely held by them and Mr Thorpe until he was lodged at the Balmain police station. la reply to questions by the lockup-keeper, he refused to give his name, saying that “ He never ga e his name when he was on that business.” He complained that he was not allowed to sit down after having had such a “hard run, and being *0 tired.” He afterwards said his name was Henry Dominic De Vere, and his occupation was “ a bank robber,” and that previously he had been a gentleman.