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Hokitika Guardian, 29 September 1932, Page 8

engine of the,car Reen.,started, a nd the armed .jnarn holding the, policeman at, bay, backed towards it and jumped on: as it moved off towards Reading.

The, constable gave the alarm, and the flying squad started in chase, but the bandits . escaped at . Basingstoke. The car.,, was found. abandoned at .Southhampton some, four hourd aftervyards. , It,,had been Stolen at Poole, Dqrsetj,. while the owner, a Bournemouth' solicitor, was -at the cinema with hfs; wife. When the stolen car was found lin Southhampton there < was no.t a drop, of petrol in the tank. The thieves must recently have left it as the engine, was still warm.

jTwo' .attempts to hold up motorists by placing huge stones' across the roadway were made near Cardiff. , . pn .the Cardiff-Dinas Powis road, near Lower Penarth, a small tourer .containing only the driver, had tq pull ur sharply, and when he alighted two men of. the .tramp type sprang out of the hedge.} .At this moment another cay appr.pia.ched, and the men escaped. The secqnd case occurred at midnight ion the main Newport-Cardiff i-oad near £>t. Mellons. On a lonely stretcho ut roadway midway beiwten the two .towns a London traveller saw large coping stones which', had apparently been Amoved; from the pavement anjd placed in the ’ route of westbound traffic. The obstacles were .so cpnspic T uops that they were easily seen, and by; making ,a swerve he avoided .them. In self-defence, motorists are urged to , ignore entirely every signal made to them except those from, men in police uniform or the uniform of such organisations as the Automobile Association.. j i ,

If any atempt at a hold-up is experienced the' matter should be repored to the next' Automobile Association official or, in the next .town reached In the present .state of. affairs, help mnst be denied,. for such courtesies of the road entail, great risk.

'One Sunday night Mr George Pack; er, of : Guilford, Surrey, was shot at three times, and wounded by a man who jumped, out from, I.behind a (tree dn a lonely road.at W-estborough, and drawing a 'revolver; frohi”nisj coat pocket,, demanded ' money. t! Mr Packer stated 'that, lie had no money and that three shots were fired at him. Tlie first shot went through his trousers, gmjjng his thigh. The second . pn© missed, but the third made a wound near the heart. A man and a woman from the railway level crossing cp.tage helped him to. a police; man’s house, and lie was then taken to a hospital.

Mr Packer, walking home alone, took a,short cut by turning off the main road on to a cinder track. Until he' had almost reached a railway bridge which ..crosses the path, he did not meet anyone, and he was startled when confronted by a man whom lie could not pee clearly in the darkness. Ah S.O.S. has been broadcast. The police have discovered what they believe to be the highwayman’s toilet kit, which included the significant equipment of a pair of rod rublie j - gloves.