BURGLAR IN BEDROOM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17844, 27 July 1921, Page 8

BURGLAR IN BEDROOM.

~+. ..t — AN ALARMING EXPERIENCE. To hear Bomeone fumbling at the door of a bedroom wardrobe in the early hours of the morning, to fully awake) and to seo a masked man standing at the foot of her bed was the alarming experience of Miss Whyte, daughter of Mr, A- E. Whyte, secretary of the Wellington Bacing Club, at about four o'clock one morning recently. '' The affair took place two days after tho Race Club ball, and Mr. Whyte expresses the opinion that the marauder was intent on obtaining the keys of the Wellington Eacing Clubs offico,knowing that there was a, large sum of money there. W'hen Miss Whyte realised that there was someone in her room, which is on the second floor of the house, she lay still for an instant, and then reached noiselessly for the electric light switch near hef bed. By this two bright electric lamps were lit, and she saw standing at' the foot of her bed a man. He was masked by a brown shawl round the lower part of his' face, and wore a felt hat nulled far down over his eyes. On realising the danger, Miss WTiyto raised an alarm, and immediately tho intruder, who was carrying a blunt instrument in his hand, fled, and made his exit through the. back door before anyone could reaqh him. All the occupants of the house were awakened by the alarm from Miss i Whyte's room, but by the time Mr. Whyte reached the landing tho intending burglar had vanished. At the foot of th<> stairs was a large flower-stand; and in the semi-darkness tho burglar evidently mistook it for a man's figure, for ho struck at it savagely with the instrument he was carrying, and smashed it. The instrument, picked up later in the debris, was a steel gate bolt ~a deadly weapon in the gf an assailant.