ARMED AND MASKED.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2728, 10 July 1925, Page 5

ARMED AND MASKED.

DARING HOLD-UPS. MELBOURNE'S CHIME ROLL. GREAT FIGHT WITH BURGLAR. SYDNEY, July 2. Armed and masked bandits holding up motor-cars, gangs of young boys raiding business premises and stealing, and young bobbed haired girls committing theft do not constitute details from a motion picture magazine, but are Melbourne’s crime list for this week. Each day the exploits of the gang of boy criminals evading the vigilance of the police become more serious. They recently broke inl,o a big firm of motor agents and garage proprietors, poured petrol over a valuable mo-tor-car which had been loft in the garage for repairs, and then set alight to it. The fire was noticed by a pass-er-by, and the brigade summoned. They had a stubborn fight to quell the blaze, and bad they not succeeded, about 50 other cars in the building would also have been burnt. The drawers were ransacked and abandoned.

Hearing the noise of breaking glass, police ran to premises where they saw two youths making off. One was captured after a chase. He was found crouching in a doorway nearby. On him were three revolvers. The youth arrested is only 17 and is a member of the gang of youths known as the Gang,” which has been responsible for a largo number of city and suburban robberies lately.

A motor mechanic was about to start his car on the Tarra Bank Road at Melbourne on Tuesday night when three men wearing black, masks rushed up. One man pointed a revolver at him, ,>nd ordered him to put his hands u/. The revolver was pressed to his body. A gold watch and chain and money were taken from him. In the car was a young woman, and when they had finished with the driver the bandits turned their attention to her. While one bandit kept the girl and the driver covered with the revolved, the other searched for her valuables. They snatched a ring from the woman’s finger after she had implored them not to take it as it was a lleopsake. They afterwards threw the ring back to her saying it was not worth twopence. Afier a dramatic struggle with a maaked and armed burglar, who threatened lo kill him, Mr. Leonard Darling, a merchant of Toorak, threw the intruder down a flight of stairs at his home.

Mr. Darling, hearing the intruder, jumped out of bed and rushed to the landing to find the man with a pistol in one hand and an electric torch in the other. He levelled his pistol and cried, “I’ll kill you!” Mr. Darling pluckiiy closed with his assailant and a fierce struggle ensued. The man, on being flung down the stairs, fled put of the front door.