AN UNPLEASANT LODGER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3138, 6 May 1914, Page 8

AN UNPLEASANT LODGER.

A MASK AND A LOADED REVOLVER. AUCKLAND, April 27. '“Hands ui) ! Who’s tnere?” was the somewhat disconcerting greeting that Annie Elizabeth Godfrey, a resident of Hobson street, met with at the head of the stairs in her house at about 5.50 p.m. on Saturday from a masked man who carried a revolver in his hand. Mrs Godfrey’s nerves, however, were proof against such trifling surprises, for, recognising the masked one as a man who rented a room in the house, she just pushed past him and went to the kitchen again. When she went to the door to empty the teapot the man with the revolver came behind her and stood over her. but said nothing, while when she returned to the kitchen the masked face and a hand clasping a revolver were thrust round the side of the door. A silent reconnaissance of the kitchen scene was made by the masked man, but Mr Godfrey serenely refused to transfer his interest from the evening paper for any little interruption like that, and Mrs Godfrey calmly proceeded noth her preparation lor the evening meal, so the masked menace withdrew while Mr and. Mrs Godfrey had tea and went out for the evening. They returned home at about 11 o’clock to find their lodger, Herbert Anderson, fast asleep on tlie kitcxien floor with a revolver loaded in two chambers lying beside him and a loose cartridge beside the revolver. “ We took the matter seriously then,” explained Mrs Godfrey to Mr Cuttcn, S.M., to-day, when Anderson

was charged with having been drunk and with having assaulted his landlady by pointing a revolver at her. Anderson, a stalwart young waterside worker, said he got drunk on Saturday, and he had no recollection at all of what happened afterwards. His Worship convicted ,Anderson and cautioned him to leave drink alone altogether, since it played such tricks with him. , . , . , Inspector M'G-rath : I think we had better keep the revolver’ for the present. His Worship : Yes; you had better keep it altogether.