BURGLAR IN MASK

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1931, Page 12

BURGLAR IN MASK

ESCAPE FROM WOMAN. FLOUR THROWN IN FACE. A- masked burglar, who wag surprised by a woman while ransacking her house on Monday night, suddenly threw a bag of flour into the woman’s face and made his escape. The encounter occurred in the home of Mrs, M. Scragg, in George’s Drive, Napier. Mrs. Scragg was alone in the house at the time, but her two sons were sleeping in a tent only a few yards away. Shortly after 11 p.m. Mrs. Scragg, who was sleeping on a porch at the back of the house, was awakened by the sound of an electric light switch being turned on and off. She thought one of her sons had entered the house and called out.

As sh® received ■no answer Mrs. Scragg roge from her bed to find out for herself who was in the house. .She had little idea that a burglar was at that moment busily ransacking the place. She entered the kitchen and was confronted by a masked stranger. Instead of immediately calling her sons she accosted the burglar and demanded to know what he was doing. She then pluckily went to close with the man, whose ''mask successfully hid his identity.

The intruder, apparently prepared for euch a. contingency, thereupon flung a bag of flour into Mrs. Scragg’s face, temporarily, blinding, her. Thoroughly terrified, she rushed to the back of the house and called her sons. When they arrived the man had gone. The hoqse was in a sorry state. Every drawer in the place had been emptied and the contents scattered about. Mrs. Scragg’s cheque book and Other private documents were taken from their pigeon holes and left on the floor, but the intruder received no tangible return for his efforts. On the kitchen table were . found a pair of blankets, a loaf of bread, a leg of mutton and a pot of jam, which, apparently, the burglar intended to take away with him. Entry to the house gained by means of a- window, which was found open.