TWO ARMED MEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22008, 15 January 1935, Page 7

TWO ARMED MEN

SHOP TILL ROBBED POLICE CORDON EVADED Thirty Sydney policemen formed a cordon round Enrhvood the other day, in an unsuccessful attempt to capture two armed men, who had robbed the till of a butcher's shop. The thieves took about £2 10s in notes and silver from the shop, and raced away into heavily wooded country. They were hotly pursued for several miles by a youth armed with a rifle, but escaped in heavy bush. They apparently awaited an opportunity to slip through the police cordon. The thieves showed remarkable effrontery. Mr. Frederick Saville was in a back room of his butcher's shop with his 18-vear-old assistant, George Beers, when two men entered the shop. One was tall, slim and fair, and the ojher short and dark, but there was nothing unusual about them. The taller man walked to the till, and coolly opened it. Mr. Saville stepped forward, and the man presented a revolver at his heart. "Ave want money," he said curtly. "Give us all you have." Mr. Saville placed his hand over the silver in the till, in the hope that the man with the revolver would attempt to snatch the money and give him an opportunity to grasp the weapon, but the thief seized some notes in the till and backed away. He repeated his demand, adding, "If you are not quick about it, I'll let you have it." At the same time the man made a threatening motion with his revolver. The other man also produced a revolver and covered Beers as he entered. The two men then slowly backed out of the shop, and the taller man said: It vou move, or say a word, 111 drill you. " When they were out of the shop, the thieves dashed away down a side street into a gully. Beers pluckily went after them on a.' bicycle. The thieves passed within a hundred yards of his house, and he ran in to obtain a pea-rifle. He kept the running men in view for several miles, but they chose rough country, in which his bicycle was of little assistance to him, and ho lost tjiem in some scrub. Mr. Saville had hanked about £2l) a few minutes before the thieves entered his shop.