ARMED ROBBERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10852, 18 March 1921, Page 7

ARMED ROBBERS

MELBOURNE BANK TELLER’S STORY.

A remarkable story of robbery under arms was told to the police recently by Cyril Sidcbottom, employed as a teller at the Bank of New Zealand in Melbourne. The teller’s story was thftt, after handing over the cash before leaving the bank on Saturday, March sth, he discovered that he hail overlooked £IBOO in notes. He thereupon .put the money in his pockets. In the afternoon he went to the races at Flemington. and won about £67. Before leaving the course ;h« was accosted by a man, who asked him for some of his winnings, at the earn* time promising to be a good friend to him. The request was deolined bv Ridebottom, but the other man expressed a determination to got some of the money. A secoad man -later asked if the first man bad got any of the money, and on receiving a reply in the negative he also expressed a determination to get some of it. Later, the teller said he retired to bed at hiie home in St. Hilda at 10.30 p.m.. baring first placed the money under the mattress; hut at 2.30 a.m- he wa® awakened by his wife, who said there was someone in the room. The electric light had been turned on, and at the foe of the bed stood a men wearing a handkerchief over the lower portion of his face and holding a revolver. A second man, similarly masked, stood near him. While the first covered .Sarlebottom with the revolver, his companion made a search of the room, and found tha money, which he took from under the mattress. The two men then drove a wax- in a motor-car.