HECTIC CHASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 92, 10 February 1947, Page 4

HECTIC CHASE

SWORD-SWINGING MADMAN Waving a Japanese Samurai sword, a man chased a screaming girl, dressed in pyjamas, down a city street at midnight. They raced past a police car. From it a constable fired a shot. The man with the sword stopped as the bullet whirred past his head. Worn out with fright and the ..run, the girl fainted face down on the roadway. Two constables grabbed the man and arrested-him—they had been looking for him all night. The girl was followed home by a young man when'she came off duty as a railway porter. Her landlady told her to lock herself in her room. The man left, saying that he would get some hand grenades and blow the place up. The' landlady called the n police. They searched the area and could not find the man.

After the police had left, the man returned to the house carrying a sword. Once again the police were called. Once again they found nothing. The girl undressed for bed. The landlady and three others in the house locked themselves in another room for safety. Then they say, from a window, the man vanishing round a corner. The girl, the landlady and the other three boarders came out from behind their locked doors and gathreed at the front doorway.

But the man scaled the back fence and climbed a tree near the girl’s bedroom, still clutching his sword. He must have leapt about four feet from the tree on to a windowledge, for he got into the girl’s room while she was at the front door.

Raising the sword above his head, the man rushed down the stairs into the front hall.

The five people ran screaming into the street and scattered in all directions.

The girl ran into Gisborne Street. The man was only three paces behind her, running with the sword held above his head, when Constable Lucas and Bird arrived again. As the man sped past, Constable Bird fired a shot and called on the man to surrender. v

Behind a tram shelter, the police found the scabbard and the sword. They were told it was taken from a dead Japanese sergeant at Balikpapan.

The mail arrested, a former serviceman from West Melbourne, was charged with having entered a dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony.