MONTGOMERY'S MONEY.

NZ Truth, Issue 245, 5 March 1910, Page 5

MONTGOMERY'S MONEY.

A SENSATIONAL AFFAIR. Vaudeville Manager Robbed of £80. A sensational and. daring robbery vras perpetrated at Martinhorough m ''the very witching hour of night when church- . yards yawn, and graves give up their dead." on Monday last. 'i'he. victim was Mputgoniexy, the proprietor of Montgomery's Entertainers. This company, which is m -the habit of touring JNew Zealand, had a one-^iight season at Martinborough on the night named, and ivir and Mrs Montgomery put up for the night at Priest-' s Ivlartiniiorough Hotel. Jlie performance being over, Mrs Montgomery returned to the hotel, and retired to her room ao li.'iti p.m., her husband, a man many years her senior, and, unfortunately, a cripple, following her almost immediately. The two undressed and went; to bed. The lock on the door, as is so frequently the case at country pubs, was ] defective, and the door could not be pro- i periy fastened. In- order, therefore, that j the door should he effectively closed, JVlrs Montgomery pushed is to and heaped all her baggage up against it as a precaution against any possible intrude*. There \vas only one chair m the bedroom. Mrs Montgomery placed her clothes upon the chair, while her husband hung his over the foot of the bed. la the hip pocket of Mr Montgomery's trousers was a< packet of £10, &5, and i>.i notes, and about £4 or &5 m silver,, amounting to about £80 m all, out of which he intended to pay his employes' salaries and his own in-dividual expenses. It must have been about 2.15 a.m. when Mrs Montgomery awoKe with that unaccountable feeling with which most of us are familiar, viz., that someone was m the room. No one, however, was then m the room, but, as events proved, someone undeniably had been. The door, against which various bags, etc., as has already been stated, had been placed,. was wide open, the baggage being pushed aside. Mrs Montgomery's suspicions were Immediately aroused, and she promptly awakened her husband and struck a light. Everything, at first sight, appeared to be intact, but a luxSber Investigation revealed the startling fact that the whole of the money, amounting' as previously mentioned, to £80 odd, had been abstracted from the hip pocket ol Mr Montgomery's trousers. There, for the present, the matter ends. The police at Martinborough were informed Immediately the robbery was discovered, Mrs Montgomery, not waiting to don more than a wrapper, so as to obviate any loss of time ; ana, upon the arrival of the police, a thorough search of the premises was made, but without avail, The headquarters police have now the matter m hand, but up to the time ol our going to press it continues a mystery.