HANDS UP!

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21184, 6 August 1940, Page 7

HANDS UP!

ARMED INTRUDER STRUGGLE BY HOUSEHOLDER FIGHT WRECKS ROOM (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) HASTINGS, Monday Returning home in the early hours of this morning a resident of Pakowhai, near Hastings, was held up by an intruder at the point of a gun, The victim was Mr Duncan E. Evans, who, after a fierce struggle, wrested the gun from his assailant. With his wife and children, Mr Evans returned to his home about 2 a.m. after spending the evening out. Entering the house, he pressed the switch to turn on the light, but the power was off. While he was striking matches to ascertain the cause of the failure he was startled by a man’s voice behind him telling him to put up his hands. Mr Evans turned and saw a middle-aged man confronting him with a double-bar-relled 6hotgun. The intruder moved the gun threateningly, and when opportunity offered Mr Evans closed with him and a fierce struggle began. While Mr Evans’ wife and children crouched in a near-by room the two men struggled for possession of the gun. This Mr Evans secured after a fight which wrecked the room. The intruder then said that he had made a mistake and apologised. He made off and shortly afterward the sound of a car engine was heard. Mr Evans went to his brother’s house near by and telephoned the police. Investigations showed that the electric power had been turned off at the meter. A wardrobe was discovered to have been broken into and a sum of money stolen.