DARING ROBBERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22810, 20 February 1936, Page 10

DARING ROBBERY

AN HOTEL ACQUAINTANCE VICTIM .TAKEN ON TAXI TRIP A daring daylight robbery accompanied by assault took place on the Napier-Hastings road last Saturday afternoon, the victim being Mr H. MTntosh, from whose pockets the sum of £8 was stolen. Extraordinary daring was displayed by his assailant in the commission of the crime. It is understood that Mr MTntosh, while in the bar of a Napier hotel, was approached by a stranger, who told him he had been informed that Mr MTntosh was going to Hastings. The man said he also was going to Hastings, and he suggested that they should make the journey together. A taxi was hired, and the two men set out shortly after 5 o’clock for Hastings. When in the vicinity of Awatoto, however, they stopped the ear and walked over to the beach, leaving the taxi driver in the car.

It is alleged that while they were on the beach the second man closed with Mr M'lntosh and pinned him face downward on the shingle while he went through his pockets. Having removed about £B, consisting mainly of notes, the man ran along the beach for a distance and * then approached the road, where he halted a railway bus travelling from Hastings to Napier. In the meantime Mr MTntosh rejoined the taxi and informed the driver of what had happened. The taxi driver droved towards the bus with the object of stopping the man, but the latter, as the car drew level with the bus, informed the bus driver that the men in the taxi did not require him to stop, and accordingly the bus continued to Napier.

Having telephoned the police at Napier, the taxi driver followed the bus and passed it. Apparently the man in the bus refused to take a seat during the journey to Napier, preferring instead to stand near the door. No doubt expecting the bus to be met at Napier,' he instructed the driver to stop at a street some distance from the terminus, and alighting at that point he made off dowi the street. The taxi, which had doubled on its tracks, gave chase, but the man disappeared and made good his escape.