TAKEN FOR THIEVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21579, 25 August 1933, Page 13

TAKEN FOR THIEVES

FIGHT AT PETROL STATION MOTORISTS AND STOREKEEPER ELDERLY WOMAN IN FRAY An extraordinary encounter, due to a misapprehension, took place at Rolleston, 14 miles south of Christchurch, early last Sunday morning. Mistaking a party of motorists for petrol thieves, Mr. W. J. Scott, storekeeper, fired a shotgun over their heads and afterwards engaged in a rough-and-tumble with two of the men. On two previous occasions Mr. Scott had had his petrol pump raided and this time he was taking no chances. At 1.30 a.m. Mr. Scott was awakened by his wife, who told him that she had heard a noise near the pump. The indications were that thieves were again at work, so Mr. Scott picked up a single-barrelled shotgun and went out to the bowser. Ho asked the men what they were doing and told them not to come any closer. When they did so, he fired the gun over their heads to alarm them. Four members of the party made a run for the main road, but the remaining two rushed at Mr. Scott and threw him to the ground, thinking they had encountered a man temporarily out of his senses. These two men. Messrs. A. and N. Fitzgerald, of Ashburton, engaged Mr. Scott in a furious struggle, the noise of which finally brought Mr. Scott's sixty-year-old mother running to the scene. She armed herself with a piece of timber and belaboured her son's assailants. The motorists finally gave 11p the struggle, and rushed to the Rolleston Hotel. Mr. Davis, licensee, was able to identify the Fitzgeralds to Mr. Scott, and after explanations had been made the participants in the struggle found time to attend to their numerous bruises. The Messrs. Fitzgerald, with four boys, had been spending the evening in Christchurch and were returning to Ashburton. They ran out of petrol at Rolleston, and the ear stopped opposite a pump near Mr. Scott's store. They could not make themselves heard, and one member of the party went to the hotel for assistance. He was unable to rouse Mr. Davis, and when returning to the ear apparently aroused Mr. and Mrs. Scott.

A sergeant and a constable arrived from the police station in response to a summons from the stationmaster, to whom a message was sent by Mr. Scott. Their services were not needed however.