YOUTH ATTACKS SHOP KEEPER

Southland Times, Issue 23544, 25 June 1938, Page 7

YOUTH ATTACKS SHOP KEEPER

BLOW STRUCK WITH HAMMER VICTIM DOES NOT LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 24. Shortly before 5.30 o’clock this afternoon, a youth walked into a cycle store kept by Mr W. H. Isdale, of New Lynn, and, while the store keeper’s back was turned, he attacked him with, a hammer, severely wounding him just above the left ear and then decamped. Mr Isdale did not lose consciousness but he lost a great deal of blood and for several hours afterwards he showed obvious effects of his experience, but he refused to have a doctor. Finger-prints on the hammer, and a description given by both the injured man and a bystander outside the shop, provided valuable clues for the police, who are conducting a widespread Mr Isdale said he kept two shops, a small general store and a cycle shop side-by-side. A well-built youth, about 16 years of age, entered the grocery store and asked him if he had any cycle ballbearings the size of one he produced. Mr Isdale went through the front door and into the cycle shop, followed by the youth. Mr Isdale went straight, to the shelves behind the counter, which is about two feet wide and was about to take down a small box of cycle ball-bearings from the lower shelf when he was struck a hard blow on the side of the head. “I didn’t fall to the ground, but I felt very sick,” Mr Isdale said, “and I managed to turn my head in time , to see the youth drop tire hammer, which had been lying on the counter, and hurry out of the door.” Constable Boag arrived shortly afterward and as soon as Mr Isdale had informed him of the facts, he set off in his motor-car in search of the youth, who made off on a bicycle. Constable Boag advised the Auckland detective office and men were despatched in the police patrol car to scour the neighbourhood.