BANK ROBBED BY DARING BANDITS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19197, 10 October 1930, Page 7

BANK ROBBED BY DARING BANDITS.

INJURED TELLER SHOOTS AT RETREATING THIEVES. (Special to the “Star.”) MELBOURNE, September 19. After having battered the teller and the clerk with an iron bar, two armed thieves robbed the Brunswick brach of the Hew South Wales Bank in Sydney Road, Brunswick, this afternoon, and escaped in a car with £3OO in notes. Although bleeding from a head wound, the teller, George M. Brooks, of St Kilda, rushed into Sydney Road after the men, and fired four shots from the bank revolver, after the car as it sped along Davies Street, and along the railway line. Richard James Martin, clerk, who reeeived the worst injuries, was taken to Melbourne Hospital to have his head treated. Brooks was treated at Dr Sutclift’s surgery in Moreland Road, Brunswick. Later the car used by the thieves was found abandoned in Lisle Avenue, find was taken to the Police Station, a quarter of a mile from the bank. One of the bandits fired pointblank at Brooks’s face, but the weapon apparently contained a blank, cartridge, because Brooks had no bullet wounds. Collapse in Street. After having chased the thieves, Brooks, who was faint from his wounds, collapsed against a street post at the corner of Sydney Road and Davies Street. The revolver was taken from him by Iddo Robert Munro, of Harding Street, Coburg, the driver of the hire car who had been forced out of his car by the thieves. Mr Munro had been waiting in' the car in Davies Street, around the corner from Sydney Road. From six or seven yards away, Mr Munro fired the two remaining shots in the bank revolver at the men in the car as it drove away. One of the bullets shattered a side window, and the man nearest to it dropped forward as if hit. Boy Engaged Car. The car was hired by a boy aged about nineteen from outside TattersaU’s Club in Swanson Street, about 1 p.m. The boy stopped in the back seat of the car while the robbery was being committed, and was driven away with the thieves. The robbery occurred at 1.50 p.m., while the manager of the bank (Mr T. F. Henderson) was away at lunch. The two thieves, each aged about twenty-five, well dressed, and wearing bowler hats, came into the bank purporting to open an account. They had been to the bank on several previous occasions to negotiate for the new account. Mr Brooks took them into the manager’s office behind the counting department, and sat between them at the table. After ten minutes, when the arrangements for the new account had been completed, Mr Brooks turned his head for a moment. When he turned back he found himself confronted by a revolver, which was pointed straight at his face. Before he had time to do anything the other man struck him violently on the head with an iron bar. Mr Brooks collapsed. When he revived, he heard-a scream from the clerk that followed a blowon the head with an iron bar. The clerk had been sitting at his ledger desk, next to the counter. Pocketed Notes. Leaving the clerk lying on the floor, the thieves ran to the till and stuffed the £3OO in notes into their pockets, af n r which . the y ran into the street. Brooks picked up the bank revolver and chased them. When the two thieves reached the car one of them jumped into the driving seat beside Munro and ordered him to drive them off. The other bandit, who had jumped into the back seat beside the boy-, pressed his revolver against the back of Munro s neck and Repeated the order to drive off. Munro purposely fumbled with the gears, in an attempt to delay starting, out the man behind him switched on tha ignition keys, stepped on the accelerator, opened the door, bumped Munro out, and took his seat, driving away at a rapid speed. After firing at the car with a revolver which he took from Brooks, .Munro ran to a car standing on the opposite side of the street, hoping to toe able to use it to chase his car. The owner, however, refused to let him use it. B efore Xlunro was forced out of his car by the thieves, he appealed for ";; p j* small crowd which had been attracted by the shots. Menaced Crowd. The armed man, however, whipped round with his revolver towards the crowd and no one came forward. Baffled in his attempt to obtain a car for pursuit, Munro watched the car drive down Davies Street towards the railw-ay line. The car turned into a

siding, which proved to be a dearl-end. It doubled back into Davies Street and disappeared down a street behind Sydney Road. Senior Constable Montgomery’s police patrol, which had been called by a shopkeeper near the bank, reached the corner of Davies Street, and was hailed by Mr Munro. Munro jumped on board, and the police car sped in pursuit of the thieves. They came into view at one point, but the patrol lost them in a network of small streets. A curious coincidence of the robbery is that the car used by the thieves is the same car that was used in the Hampton bank robbery a few years ago, when a bank clerk named Almeida was shot dead. The car was then owned by Mr Munro, but it >as being driven by an employee, who had been hired unknowingly bv the thieves.