NEW ZEALAND BANK TELLER ROBBED

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1921, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND BANK TELLER ROBBED

A VERY CURIOUS STORY

SYDNEY, March 15

There are some very remarkable circumstances about the loss by Cyril Sidebottom, a teller in the Bank of New Zealand, Collins street, Melbourne, of some £2OOO. Sidebottom telephoned the police on Sunday week that lie had been robbed of £IBOO belonging to the bank. His story was that the previous day, after the hank’s strongrooms had been closed and the keys taken away, he discovered 01800 in notes in his desk which had j been overlooked. Rather than take the ; risk of leaving them there, he put them in his pocket—they were ot a large denomination—and left the hank. He went to the races, betted modestly, and returned home by train. That night, he placed the notes under the mattress on which lie and his wile slept. About 2.30 a.m. they were awakened by two men, one of whom held up the couple at the point of a revolver while the other seal cited the room and found the notes. They then decamped with the notes. The police made inquiries. They fern ml, first, that tlic amount missing from tlie hank was £2129: that .Sidebottom had made large bets at the races— £4OO to £IOO, £2OO to £7)O, and | {_•.-,(}() to Lion, the last one being sut- ! cessltil ; that lie had given a racecourse i tip.-ter 080; and that he had returned ! fiy special motor and not by train, i Sidebottom was thereupon arrested. Up ! to then there seemed no unusual circumstance, except that Sidebottom was on old and trusted servant of the hank. But the detectives continued inquiries into Sidebottoin’s story ot the midnight robbery, and within a couple ol days they arrested two men—lames Surrey Cain, a commission agent, aged 32, and Leonard Bartlett, a. voungci man. Mr and Mrs Sidebottom positive! v identified Cain as one ol the men who took the fclWO from under the mattress. At tlie present, all three men aie j ||ll( | el arrest —Sidebottom charged with j robbing the hank, and the other two i with robbing Sidebottom. It is a vet) curious position, the most puzg.ling thing being the difference between £2129, which is missing from the hank, and CIBOO of which the teller says he was robbed.