DESPICABLE ROBBERY

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 63, 8 March 1933, Page 5

DESPICABLE ROBBERY

Woman Held By Stranger WHILE OTHERS RANSACK HOUSE THIEVES ESCAPE IN MOTOR CAR “ Come on—money or your life!” demanded an unknown man, who, called at a rather isolated house in Hatuma Road last evening, and, pulling a cloth over the head of an elderly widow, Mrs. Catherine Davies, dragged her from the door and held her while confederates ransacked the house, later escaping in a car with money totalling £3 10s. The despicable outrage occurred about 8.45 o'clock. Mrs. Davies, who is aged 66, was alone in the house at the time, her three sons and one daughter having gone out. Answering a knock at the front door just as she was about to go to bed, Mrs. Davies saw a man standing in the shadows with a felt hat pulled down over his eyes. He asked if Mr. Davies was at home, and she, assuming that he meant her son Claude, went to the latter’s room to find out, not being sure whether he had left. She returned and said that he was out. but that she could soon get him on the 'phone. In some unaccountable way her suspicions were roused, and she determined to ring the next-door neighbour and ask her simply to “come across,” which could have been done without alarming the stranger. However, the ’phone was out of order, and when Mrs. Davies returned to the door her arms were immediately pinioned by the man, who threatened her with the words. “Come on —money or your life!” “I have no money,” she replied. “Yes, you have,” he said, throwing a thick cloth over her head and dragging her out on to the lawn. “Don’t struggle and I won’t hurt you,” he warned. “All’s well,” he then cried to his companions who were apparently hiding nearby. While he forcibly detained Airs. Davies, the other men entered the house and, switching oil the light at the meter, ransacked every room, scattering the contents of drawers, wardrobes and cupboards over the floor in indescribable confusion. They secured £3 10s in notes, which was concealed under a mattress, but they were obviously in search of money only, as jewellery and other articles of value were left untouched.

The intruders came out of the house after about 10 minutes, and, at the signal “All’s well," the first man loosed Mrs. Davies, with a warning not to follow. A minute later Mrs. Davies heard the sound of a car starting off in the direction, she thought, of Hatuma. Only about ten minutes elapsed before Miss Davies arrived home. She immediately returned to Waipukurau and notified her brother and the police of the robbery, Constable Sutton going out to the scene. Mrs. Davies's arm is bruised where the man seized her. Apart from the facts that he was not well dressed, that he had a beard or moustache, and was probably middle-aged, Mrs. Davies is unable to describe his appearance. “I was too thunderstruck and shocked to notice anything very clearly,” she said this morning. In addition to the man wlfo held her there appeared to be two others, but it was possible that there was only one other. Inquiries among the neighbours have elicited no information of suspicious movements on the part of strangers.