Gagged and Bound.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 233, 11 December 1888, Page 3

Gagged and Bound.

A GIRL'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY. Melbourne November 28. Last week Mrs Barry, of North Melbourne, reported to the police that during her absence from home in the morning, a masked man had entered her house, and after gagging her daughter, aged 17, had stolen jewellery to the value of £2 10s. The girl tells a most extraordinary story. She states that after her father had gone to work she found a no e on the front veiandah stuck in between the b ards, and addressed t * her mo her. This letter purported to come from a Mrs Todd, who was a iriend of her mother’s, and it a>ked that she should come as soon as she got up, as Mrs Todd had heard something to her advantage. She gave this note to her mother, who started off t ■ Ms Todd’s house at once. As soon as her mother went out of the back gate a knock came to the front door. As she opened it she saw a slight man with very dark eyes. He had a black misk on the upper part of his face, but she could see his eyes through the eye holes. He asked if her mother was in, and, on receiving a negative reply, he rushed inside, caught her, and knocked her down. He took a small piece of leadpencil from his pocket and a piece of string from the table, a d with the former he m de a gag, which he fastened in her mouth. Then he tied her feet together at the ankles, but left her handsfree. She was so frightened that she did not dare to move. Leaving her lying on the floor of the sittinuroom, he commenced to ransack the bedroom, which is opposite. He had, however, only succeeded in obtaining possession of a few gold trinkets when her little brother, two years of age, came in at the back, and the robber becoming alarmed, decamped. The mother had in the meantime gone to Mrs Todd and discovered that he note was not genuine. On he return she was told by her daughter of the alleged outrage, which she at once reported to the polic- The matter has been placed in the hands * f the detectives, but they have no hope of discovering the perpetrator.