TRAMWAY HOLD-UP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 299, 19 December 1933, Page 6

TRAMWAY HOLD-UP

THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE quickly convinced OTHERWISE A PLANNED HAPPENING. ■ When Alotorman D. Melville was hold-up by an armed masked man in the tramway administration building nr Taupo Quay on Sunday night, he thought that a member of the shed staff was playing a practical joke on him. ‘‘Get out of this,” lie said to the intruder. “You’ll make me make a mess of my charge.” “If you don’t hand the stuff over J’ll well make a mess of you,” the robber answered, and convinced the motorman that there was very little joke in the affair. The £3 in loose silver, a good deal of it in threepenny bits, was pocketed by the visitor, who got out as quickly as he had come. Air Melville immediately communicated with the police, who arc now making a vigorous search for a man of medium build and about five feet seven or eight inches in height. So far, the search has not been rewarded. It xvas fortunate in some respects that the hold-up took place when it did. The car robbed was the poorest of the six ihat were in commission that day. In addition to that the weather had kept a good many people indoors, and in consequence the tramway takings wore loss than those usual on a summer Sundav afternoon. The more the incident is studied the more are the authorities convinced that the central figure planned his movements fairly carefully, watching his chance. The fact that the deed was accomplished on a Sunday, too. has suggested that the methods of the I tramway conductors had been made ; note of. Unlike the procedure on n week day all the change collected on trams on a Sunday is kept loose. On other days through the week approximately fifty per cent, of the fares finds a wav into the locked containers on the cars, the keys of which are held by the tramway clerical staff, who were not on duty when the hold-up took place. A logical assumption on the part of the intruder apparently was that more loose money would require checking on a Sunday than on a week night, and that the service I would be operated by a smaller staff than usual. When ho acted, the robber wore neither coat nor vest, but was garbed in a pair of grey trousers. He was also without a hat, the whole of his head being covered with a very roughly made mask of dark cloth. Asked what type of revolver the man held. Mr. Melville said he did not take particular notice, except to become aware that it looked very businesslike. Looking down the barrel of a weapon of any sort, when the man at the other end is a stranger, is masked and is demanding money is not a pleasant sensation. he has pointed out. For the sake of such a comparatively small amount ns £3 if was not wise to take any risks.