SEVEN ROBBERS CAUGHT RED-HANDED

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6810, 14 January 1929, Page 2

SEVEN ROBBERS CAUGHT RED-HANDED

SUCCESSFUL FUL.IOE KUSH. Seven Neapolitan highway robbers were caught red-handed while holding up tho cashier of the Castellamare ironworks and relieving him of £5500, the weekly wages of his firm, states a message received from a Rome correspondent. Every week tho cashier carried the money from the bank to tho works, a distance of about two miles, during the slack hours of the day. Neapolitan summers are hot, and no oue ventures out of doors between onfc and three o ’clock in tho afternoon. Carrying money in a closed cab is therefore considered quite safe, and the seven highwaymen felt convinced that it would be equally safe to rob the cashier. They parked the car in a sandy corner of the road, waited for tho cashier’s cab to pass, and merely asked him to hand over his money. The cashier and the cabman showed no fight. Suddenly one of the robbers signalled the approach of a motor-car, but they rvere reassured when they saw that the occupants w'erc women with rosary treads round their necks and holy images pinned in their clothes, a sign that they were on a pilgrimage to the nearby church of the Madonno di Montevergine. It is well kuow'ii that Neapolitan peasant women arc not deterred by the summer sun from their devotions and that motorists gave lifts to the pilgrims. Just as tho.pilgrims’ car passed by the highwaymen were astounded to see the peasant women jump out and rush at them, brandishing heavy service re volvers. The seven higlnvay robbers had not recovered from their surprise

before they found themselves handcuffed. it took some time for the Carabineers disguised as peasant women to discard their clothes and. get into their uniforms, but no time was lost in escorting the seven men to prison.