PAY BAG STOLEN.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16035, 28 January 1920, Page 5

PAY BAG STOLEN.

STORY OF MASKED MEN,

“THREAT OP DEATH.’

BATHURST, January 24. Two masked and armed men are reported to have held up a clerk on the Perthville railway station early this morning, and, under a threat of" death, compelled him to hand over the paybags which the western mail train had just brought along. “The guard handed me over the bag of money, and just after the train drew out of the station two masked men appeared in front of me and demanded the bag. A revolver was thrust in my face, and I handed over the bag. The men then made off in the darkness. Elis statement by Pelick Albert Pedron, junior relieving clerk at Perthville railway station, gives the substance of an apparently sensational hold-up at Perthville railway station early this morning. The mail from Sydney had drawn in on its way west, and the guard in charge hail brought along with him the various pay’amounts for distribution at the respective stations en route. He handed the Perthville bag, containing over T7O, to Pedron, who was in charge at fihe time.

POLICE INQUIRIES. Pedron’s story to the police states that he stood on the platform until the train moved away and then the two masked men, one of whom at least was armed, approached him with the threat of death unless he handed over the money. He says he became afraid and complied, and the men hurried along the platform into the darkness, evidently making for the main road. Pedron, who is 18 years of age, has been stationed at Perthville for a month, f He is on the relieving staff, and was last placed at Mudgee, No one beyond the 'three men immediately concerned seem to have had any knowledge of the-hold-up, and the inquiries immediately instituted by the polio©, headed by Inspector Campbell, an ex-Sydney detective, have not yet resulted in any further development.