GIRL ATTACKED

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1932, Page 6

GIRL ATTACKED

ROBBED'OF £IOO BY BANDITS

LONDON DAYLIGHT ASSAULTS

LONDON, December 21

Girl clerks sent to banks for money for their firms are becoming increasingly the prey of bandits, who pounce on them in broad daylight. Two further attacks of this kind occurred on the same day recently and both in London.

At Acton two girls who were returning from a bank were attacked by twomen who snatched a leather attache case containing £IOO, the property of their employers, and drove off in a car. Miss May Kees, of Battersea, who is aged 22, and her 25-year-old. friend. Miss Freda Guthrie, of Ealing, were approaching the works of their firm when a saloon car drew' up 80 yards behind them. Two men suddenly caught hold of the girls and forced them apart. One man grabbed the attache case from Miss- Kees. Nothing was said, hut the young women screamed, and 'Miss Kees held on with all her might to the handle of the case. Unfortunately the handle came off in her hand, and the man made off with the attache case to the car, in which he was driven away by a companion and lost in the network of streets in South Acton. Several people were in the street but the men had snatched the bag and jumped into the car before anyone could intervene.

RUNNING BOARD LEAP

“The bag was snatched from me when Mi-s Guthrie and I were only three minutes from the works,” said Miss Kees. “A man came up behind, ran in front of Miss Guthrie and grasped the bag. I held oji as long. a« possible, but finally the man .wrenched it from me. Meanwhile, my friend had dashed to' the waiting car to which the man wa s running. She jumped on to the running board, but was knocked off when the door was pushed open. It was a matter of a few seconds only.” - Miss Kees added that the money was part of 4 the wages for the office staff and work people. Mr IK, F. M. Steele, manager of the works, said the girls came -to him in tears and he telephoned the polite, A man who had, seen the incident took the number of the car, and inquiries were being made in regard to a car bearing, that number.

Miss Ivy Marks, of Elthain, a typist employed by leather merchants, of Market Street, S.E., was attacked by two men in Weston Street, S.E., and her handbag, containing £2O, stol.n. “Miss Marks' was returning from the bank with the money,” it was stated ■at 'the firm’s premises. “She was walking down Walton Street, when two rough-looking men pushed her, seized her bag and bolted down an alleyway. Miss Marks was not seriously-hurt, but she was rather shaken, and was allowed to go home.” RINGS WORTH £ISOO SEIZED. An exciting chase through the crowded streets of -Southsea- occurred the same evening, when a man grabbed a tray of rifles, valued at £1557, from the shop of Messrs G. Hurst ana Son, King’s Road. The man enterea tlio shop and asked to be shown a seven-stone diamond ring. A tray containing the jewellery was placed before him on the counter. He grabbed the tray and dashed out of the shop.

Although the road was fairly Crowded at the time the thief safely made hi a way to a side street.. Mr J. C. Dennis, the jeweller’s assistant, two other men went in pursuit. Mr George Brown tackled a man and knocked him down with a punch on tho jaw. The man struggled desperately to escape, but was held and handed over to Detective-Sergeant Woombell, who., with Detective Baker. : arrived in a police patrol car. The tray containing the rings had been thrown under a ear and several of the ring;/ were afterwards picked up by pas s ers-by outside.tbe shop, and returned to the jeweller. Only one i-ing was reported missing, valued at £SO, but this was eventually found on the floor of the shop.