DISCREDITED STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18772, 28 July 1924, Page 8

DISCREDITED STORY.

ATTEMPT TO ROB BANK.

AN IMAGINATIVE CLERK.

HIGHLY-STRUNG NATURE." [EX TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHEISTCHUECH. Saturday. An extraordinary story of the alleged attempt to rob the Timaru branch of the National Bank of New Zealand in the early Lours of yesterday morning was told to the police by a young man named Stanley Field, a clerk at the bank, who slept on the premises. The story was discredited by the police, who had their suspicions aroused as to its veracity by «ome peculiar circumstances, and they were able to secure from the clerk later in the day a statement which was tantamount to a denial of the presence o£ a burglar. About 5.15 a.m. the police received a telephone message from the bank to say that an attempt had been made to rob the premises, and Constable Sanvig was despatched to the scene. On arrival he learned from Field that the latter had. had occasion to come down the stairs. from his sleeping quarters. As he passed the entrance into the bank premises, where business was conducted, he noticed that a door which had been locked with a Yale lock and bolted before he retired the previous evening was open. His suspicions being aroused he groped_ into the bank in the dark and located his revolver on one of the counters. This he cocked and went in search of the intruder, still in the dark. Presently he came across a man who rushed him and aimed a blow at him with a chair. This interesting article of furniture struck the revolver in his hand and it went off. -. The man then rushed out of the back door, and. as he went Field fired at him, the bullet lodging in the woodwork. At the same time he called to his companion upstairs, a young man named Gibson, who immediately rushed to tho window of the room and flung it open. Thrusting his head out from that elevated position he had a full view of the backyard, which at that hour was brightly lighted by a half moon. This is the story tho chief actor in the affair told to the police. On looking into ' thei matter, however, the _ police found some strange features which they could not reconcile with the story. For instance the downward sweep of the chair when it il hit the revolver would have directed the bullet into the floor or some low-level place whereas the lead found its billet in the ceiling. Another thing was that the narrator's companion, who saw the yard only a second or two after tha shots were fired, saw no sign of a man, nor did he hear any noise as of someone making a hasty "getaway." The back door, too, which was bolted and locked, could hardly have been opened from the outstide without assistance from inside. Suspicion was also aroused in the minds of the police as to why Field did not switch cin the electric light when he commenced to search for the burglar, for the switch was near at hand as he entered. The revolver which he said he found on one of the counters had been taken to his room when he retired the previous night. In view of those things the police closely cross-examined the clerk, who then made the repudiation referred to. It was stated by the police that the clerk was of a highly-strung nature, s and had evidently been reading accounts of tho attempt to rob the bank in Waimate last Saturday. ■■■-.