MESSENGER WAYLAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23866, 21 July 1939, Page 13

MESSENGER WAYLAID

£450 STOLEN IN CITY STREET "From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNE V July 11. “ Right!" said a thief in a busy Sydnev street as a signal, and he and a companion snatched from a 17-year-old messenger a bag containing £4lO in notes and £4O in cheques. The thieves slipped through the door of a hotel, outside which they had been waiting, and escaped. When the mes*

senger attempted to chase them they slammed the door in his face, went through the bar, and mingled with the crowds in the street. The money was the property of Eric Moore Pty.. Ltd., motor cycle dealers. Comprising £3OO in £1 notes, £6O in £lO notes, and £SO in £5 notes, and cheques and money orders, the money was being taken to the bank by Harold Vivian Smith, an employee Carrying the mone> in a small leather satchel, Smith left his firm’s office and had walked only about 40 yards when he noticed two men leaning against the saloon bar entrance of a hotel.

When Smith was opposite them one o. the men straightened up and, giving the signal, he and his companion made a dash at the youth. One of

the men knocked the satchel from Smith's hand, and the other held the youth. Picking up the bag, the first man ran into the saloon bar, and the second man, releasing Smith, followed him. Though taken back by the sudden attack. Smith quickly pursued the two men. Close behind the second man. he ran up the hotel steps, but as he gained the entrance the man, slammed the door in his face.

Smith pulled the door open and ran in after the thieves, but none of the occupants of the bar had noticed the men pass through, and no one in the street had seen the thieves emerge from the hotel. Smith returned and informed his employers, whr telephoned the police. The thieves had too great a start, and were not caught.