EDENDALE SENSATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21543, 15 January 1932, Page 7

EDENDALE SENSATION

MANAGER AND WIFE ATTACKED A PLUCKY RESISTANCE THE INTRUDERS DECAMP (Per United Press Association.) EDENDALE, January 14. Further inquiries regarding the holdup of the Edendale branch of the Bank of New South Wales shpws that the manager (Mr Archibald) and his wife are both suffering from shock. The latter received bruises on the forehead and a cut on the cheek from the effects of an improvised sandbag. The intruders gained an entry by opening the window of the sitting room at the front of the house. They walked down the lighted hallway to the kitchen, where Mr Archibald and his wife were reading. Hearing footsteps, the latter got up from her chair and opened the door. The assailant rushed in and hit her, knocking off her glasses; and a second blow was received on her cheek. The husband rushed to his wife’s assistance, and pushed her past him, enabling her with great presence of mind to rush out of the back door and call for help. She was followed by the man, armed with a rifle, which was loaded. Meanwhile her husband struggled with the second man, who hit out with a sandbag, which burst as it struck Mr Archibald’s head. He then followed outside to help his wife, who meanwhile rushed out, running to a next-door neighbour. The husband proceeded down the street, and called for further assistance, but, returning, found no trace of the intruders, who had decamped. The incident created a good deal of interest locally, and the general opinion was that the would-be robbers, once the alarm was given, were afraid to carry through to obtain the keys of the bank premises, attached to the manager’s residence.

On the night previous to the hold-up the blacksmith’s premises, a few doors away from the bank, were burglariously entered, and an attempt made to set fire to them, which failed owing to early detection by a passer-by. The general opinion is that the incidents involve somebody with an intimate knowledge of local conditions, as the hold-up was attempted after the closing of the telephone exchange, when means of communication were restricted.