Country Postmaster in Armed Hold-up

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 184, 7 August 1939, Page 5

Country Postmaster in Armed Hold-up

THIEVES SECURE £lB MELBOURNE, July 28 * After an all-night hunt through the frost-covered hills of Mansfield, 130 miles from Melbourne, on the second coldest night of the year, the police detained two men and a woman, who were alleged to have held up the post* master at Bonnie Doon and to have rrken a sum of money. The postmaster, Mr M. Kedfern. was alono in his house, which forms part of the post office, at 8 p.m., when two men and a young woman dressed in a man’s clothes drove up in a sedan car. The woman knocked at the door and inquired the way to Melbourne. Mr Kedfern was talking to her when the two men followed. 4 ‘Before I could say anything one of the men pointed a gun at me and said, ‘Get over into the corner and turn vour back/ ” said Mr Kedfern. “I did as I was told. The other man, who did not appear to be armed, snatched my keys and he and the woman went into an adjoining room and opened the safe. They took about £lB in notes and silver, and then all three drove oil toward Mansfield.’* After the men and the woman had left, Mr Redfern immediately informed the local police. A message was sent to the police at Mansfield, 13 miles away. Senior-Constable Tobin acted quickly. Ho drove out from Mansfield and soon saw a car approaching at high speed. The car raced past him, careered wildly along the road and ran into a creek. Two men and a young woman leaped out and had disappeared in the direction of somo bush by the time Constable Tobin had turned back. In the abandoned car, which had been stolen from West Brunswick, Melbourne, the previous evening, the constable found the barrel of a smallcalibre rifle and some house-breaking tools. Police in adjacent areas were summoned. Nine constables searched all night in bush-covered mountainous country for the fugitives, all roads in the district were guarded, and wireless patrol and motor-cycle police watched the main highways leading to Melbourne. Finally tho threo suspects were arrested after a pursuit. They appeared in the Mansfield Court and were remanded.