ROBBED IN CAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 170, 21 July 1942, Page 6

ROBBED IN CAR

TAXI-DRIVER'S LOSS

FOUR MEN INVOLVED

A robbery in which four men are

stated to have taken part occurred in a t.i xi on a lonely road in Point, nev,a| icr early on Sundav morning, the VII Hill being Mr. Charles Lewis. 'Inver n( a Checker cab. After ali 11 "' ( '<-li had been taken from his pockcis. amounting tn about 17, the men <!i<( amped and have not yet been traced bv the police. •Mr. Lewis informed the police that he wa.«, on the rank outside the Civic l lieatre at 1..'!() a.m. when four men. three Europeans and a Maori, engaged hi ni to drive to Point ( licvalier. one sat in the front seat • ind ilie other three men occupied the rear .-.eat.

"As I was driving along Harbour \ lew Ituad. Point Chevalier. 1 was asked to stop," said Mr. Lewis, recount mf/ the incident, "As 1 was applying ilie brakes one of the men in the back seat said Right,' and when I had stopped I was astonished to find I hat, an overcoat was thrown over my head and held around my neck. As one of the men held the overcoat down over my head the man alongside me leaned over and lorced me against the window. One of the men in the rear seat grabbed m.v arms and helu them together behind my back. While I was in this helpless position another went through my pockets and stole all the cash 1 had.

"Then, as lie whisked the coat off my head, one of tile lour said to me. 'We're experts at this,'" continued Mr. Lewis. "The four men left my car and ran towards the beach. As they had taken the ignition key from the switch I had to walk two miles to report the affair to the police. Later I returned with another car and towed my own home."

In the past a number of assaults, some of them serious, have been committer! on taxi drivers in Auckland at. night. It will be remembered that Mr. Blair, a taxi driver, was murdered In his cab at Mount Roskill some years ago, while a few years later another taxi driver was stabbed In the back on the North Shore. In tho first case the murderer was never traced, but in the second two young men were convicted of the assault.

On July 20 last year a taxi driver, Mr. Jack Stewart Young, was attacked by a man in Hackett Street, PonHonbv. His assailant dealt Mr. Young several blows on the head with a heavy instrument. Since then several other assaults have been committed on taxi men, all at night. Some time ago the suggestion was made that iron or wire grilles should be fitted In taxis to protect drivers from being assaulted by passengers in the rear seat, but nothing came of the proposal.