SAFE ROBBERY

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1933, Page 3

SAFE ROBBERY

PEPPER IN CLERK’S EYES

BLOW WITH A SANDBAG

Throwing pepper into the eyes of a clerk and knocking him unconscious with a sandbag, a thief opened the safe of the Wollongong branch of the New South Wales Mont de Piete, Ltd., recently and stole £75. Vincent Hannam, the clerk, was unconscious for half an hour, and .was later’ ‘found by a tenant wandering about the building, dazed and in great agony from the pepper thrown in' his eyes. He was treated by a local doctor and was taken home.

Hannam said subsequently that when attacked lie was seated in the office with his back to the door. As it was his lunch-hour he was amusing himself with a crossword puzzle, while he waited for a friend. There was a knock at the door and a man dressed in a dustcoat and wearing a cap entered the room. Hannam turned round, thinking it was his friend. The man lifted up his hands in a threatening manner and Hannam tliieesv up his hands to .protect himself. Pepper “thrown ;by the man entered his eyes and a few seconds later Hannam was knocked unconscious by a violent blow over the head.

The man. then ..took the keys from Hannam’s pocket and opened the safe. He broke open two cash boxes and tpok; £75 in, notes. By the time Hannam had come to his senses half an hour later the man had vanished. Hannam attempted to leave the building and warn the police, but so painful were his eyes that he could not see, and lie wandered about the building in great agony. They ambulance conveyed him to a doctor, who treated his eyes, but it was expected that it would probably be several days before he recovered, from the effects of.the vicious assault. He is suffering also from a bruise on the back of the head, where he was struck. ■ • ■ It is evident that the robbery Avas ' wcil planned, as the thief.chose the only ' time /luring . the. day - when the manager, Mr J. A. Doutty, was absent. . %.■