COURAGEOUS WOMAN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 198, 22 July 1937, Page 12

COURAGEOUS WOMAN

COOLNESS BEFORE ROBBER. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 21. Remarkable coolness and courage were shown by a Wellington woman, Mrs M. J. Walton, when a well-dressed masked man entered her confectionery shop in Molesworth Street on Tuesday night and at the point of a i-evolver twice commanded her to open the till, hacking up the second command with a threat to shoot. She refused and, after a battle of wills, the discomfited wouldbe robber pocketed his revolver and left.

She said she was alone in the dining room behind the shop when interviewed to-night. She saw the man by the open door when she entered the shop. He pointed the revolver at her. Half his features were concealed by a scarf. He ordered her. to open the till but she refused. The second time he threatened to shoot her but she •was undismayed.

“I told him I wasn’t frightened and that he could shoot,” she said. “I said I was a widow. God was my maker and my protector. I had no fear. “He looked hard at me for a moment or two and suddenly dropped his head and pocketed the revolver. ‘Well, you’re the bravest woman I’ve met. I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself,’ he said, and left the shop.”