HANDS UP!

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 29 April 1914, Page 5

HANDS UP!

MASKED MAN WITH A REVOLVER

BY TELEGIUPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. ~tt , ' AUCKLAND, April 27. Hands up! Who's there?" was the somewhat disconcerting greeting that Annle Elizabeth Godfrey, a resident ot Hobson street, got at the head of the stairs in her house about 5.30 p m on Saturday from a masked man who earned a revolver in his hand. Mrs Godfrey s nerves, however, were proof against such trifling surprises, for recognising the masked one as a man who rented a room in the house, she just pushed past him and went to the kitchen again. When she went to the door to empty the teapot the man with the revolver came behind her and stood over her, but said nothing the wlnle. When she returned to the kitchen the masked face and hand clasping the revolver were thrust round the side of the door. A silent reconnaisance of the kitchen scene was made by the masked man, but Mr Godfrey serenely refused to transfer his interest from the evening paper for any little interruption like that and Mrs Godfrey calmly proceeded with her preparation tor the evening meal, so the masked menace withdrew, while Mr and Mrs Uodrrey had tea and went out for the evening. They returned home about II o clock to find their lodger Herbert Anderson, fast asleep on the kitchen floor, with the revolver, loaded m two chambers, lying beside him and a loose cartridge beside the revolver. 'We took the matter seriously then, explained Mrs Godfrey to Mr Cutten, S.M., to-day, when Anderson was charged with having been drunk and. with having assaulted his landlady by pointing a revolver at her. Anderson is a stalwart young waterside worker. He got drunk on Saturday, he said, and remembered getting home to his room, but he had no recollection at all of what happened afterwards.

His Worship convicted Anderson and cautioned him to leave the drink alone altogether since it played such tricks with him.

Inspector McGrath: I think' we had better keep the revolver for the present.

His Worship: Yes, you had better keep it altogether.