DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22191, 19 August 1935, Page 12

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

THE THEFT OF £6OO PEPPER THROWN !N EYES ESCAPE: OF ASSAILANT ALLEGED ACCOMPLICE CHARGED Two men were waylaid at Darlinghurst, Sydney, recently and a bag containing more than £6OO in cash, which one was carrying, was. snatched from his hand. The men said they were temporarily deprived of their sight by pepper, which was thrown in their eyes. W hen the\ recovered, they saw a man running away. An exciting chase followed, but the man clambered over a fence protected with barbed wire, and disappfiflrcd. The police were informed later that a man met two women at the edge of a vacant allotment,, that one of the women placed some object in a suitcase, and that the women and the man then separated. A search of the locality shortly after this incident proved unsuccessful. Story ol 'ihe Theft The money was the property of Mr. John Wilson, an elderly engineer, He has been unemployed for two years, and recently sold a house at Darlinghurst in the "hope of finding more profitable employment for his; small savings. He decided to buy two taxicabs, with which he hoped to found a small business. He reached a tentative agreement with K. C. O'Connell, described as the agent of a motor-car company. He withdrew his savings from a bank at Darlinghurst, and the money was left for the night in a sale deposit vault at the bank. On the following morning the two men went to the bank to collect the money. They recovered the bag, and were just approaching a car that was waiting for them, when a man walked up to them. Pe;pper was suddenly flung in Mr. Wilson's eyes »id he received a blow in the face, which broke his spectacles and three of his false teeth and left him stunned. The bag was snatched from O'Connell's hand a second later. Then a man dashed along the road and turned into a side street. The police began an immediate search. Residents of tall flats in the locality insisted that a man was hiding on the vacant allotment, and a police cordon was immediately thrown round it. A careful search showed there was no one there. Man on a Balcony The police then commenced systematically to interview the occupants of the dozens of flats which overlook various parts of the allotment. Mr. S. Tutton, a boot repairer, who works in a balcony room, was able to give them some interesting information. He said that about 20 minutes before the incident he saw a man and two women standing in a street and examining gates* leading to the allotment. Then they walked up the street. Mr. Tutton said that later he saw the man s.uddenly appear in the allotment and climb over the gates. At the same time the two women walked down the street. Both were carrying suitcases. The women stopped for a moment, and the man jumped into the street. As he did so his hat fell off. One woman picked it up and put it under her coat. The other opened her suitcase, appeared to put something in it, and then closed it again. The man continued up the street, and the women down it, all three walking at a leisurely pace. It was stated in a cablegram published on August 9 that O'Connell had been charged with stealing the money and remanded. The police alleged that he was in the plot, and that he did not receive any pepper in his eyes. DARING ESCAPE YOUNG PRISONER'S RUSE JOURNEY BY AEROPLANE [FROit OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, Ang. 9 An unprecedented method was lately used by Arthur Charles Watson, aged 21, in escaping from Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane. Watson, who was serving a term of imprisonment for theft and illegal use of a motor-car and was employed as a kitchen-boy and gardener at the home of the superintendent, left the prison in stolen clothes, and headed straight for the Arcberfield aerodrome. There he presented himself as the son of the prison superintendent, Mr. F. J. Whitney. Watson took his seat as a passenger in the aeroplane for Toowoomba, and, unknown to the authorities of that city, he landed and disappeared while the police Were still searching for him in Brisbane. Watson had apparently planned his escape for a time when the house was unoccupied. It is believed that he went to the room of Alan Whitney, son of the superintendent, where lie changed hisi garb for a suit belonging to the young man. In. the pocket of Whitney's suit he found a wallet containing a motor-driving licence and a £1 note. As soon as the guard in the tower overlooking the yard had turned his back, it is belipved the escapee crept close to tihe wall of the house toward tho main door of the prison. He then made his escape with comparative ease. Watson sprang over a low fence, said a railway official who saw him, and walked leisurely down tho road, where he hailed a taxi and got to the aerodrome in time to catch the Xew England Airways aeroplane for Toowoomba. The taxi drove up, and Watson sprang out. He breathlessly explained that ho had to get to Toowoomba in a desperate hurry, as he wished to reach the bedside of his mother, who was dangerously ill, There was little time to argue as tho machine was due to leave, but to lull any suspicion the would-be passenger produced young Mr. Whitney's driving licence, hy which he identified himself. He said, "Everything will he all right, and the fare can be charged to my father, Mr. Whitney." He was allowed to enter the machine and a moment later it was soaring. The amazing luck which attended Watson in his dariilg escape was illustrated the next day. At Archerfield aerodrome, Watson evaded certain capture only because a telephone box chanced to be locked. The pilot of the aeroplane, Mr. P. H. Moody, was thus unable to verify Watson's story that he was the son of the prison superintendent. As the man who had the key to the telephone box happened to be in another part of the aerodrome, the pilot returned to the aeroplane and Watson took his place with the other passengers. The falsity of Watson's story was not discovered until more than an hour after the machine arrived at Toowoomba, when the manager of the company telephoned Mr. Whitney that "his son had left to see his dying mother."