AN IRATE HOUSEHOLDER

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2339, 8 October 1921, Page 1

AN IRATE HOUSEHOLDER

PURSUIT THROUGH STREETS,

INCIDENT IN SYDNEY.

Once again the would-be bitei* has been bitten, says a Sydney paper. A housebreaker at Randwick was caught red-handed in a house that had been unoccupied for only half-an-hour. He was chased and captured, and given a thrashing that made him beg for mercy. Mr.A.C.Barnes, contractor to the Randwick Council, lives in Denver 1 , on the western side of Perouse Road and a little before 4.30 p.m. he left with his wife and sou William for a short walk. Before leaving he secured all the doors and windows.

When they returned at 5 p.m., Mr. Barnes opened the front door and walked along the hall, followed by his wife and son. When he entered the kitchen he found a panel of the door leading from the back verandah smashed. Splinters and chips were lying all round on the Jloor. lie then walked out through the laundry to the door which leads to the back garden. It \Vas ajar, having been nearly forced with a jemmy that was found lying on the asphalt a little distance away. Mr. Barnes walked into the dining room in order to search the place, but just then the front door was quickly opened, and as he peeped round to sec the reason a man leaped from 4 the top of the verandah steps and landed just in front of the gate, and darted out and ran at a break-neck speed across the road.

Mr. Barnes is of athletic build, and 45 years of age. He set his teeth and went oil' after the intruder. His .son joined in and very quickly the gap separating them from there quarry was lessened. The man sprinted for another 20 yards or more, and summoning up all his strength, leaped on to a backyard fence. Mr. Barnes climed the fence,- too, but by the time he had done so the burglar was clearing the side fence of the residence of Mrs. Kennevin, and Mr. Barnes jumped down and ran to the back gate. Mrs. Kennevin’s son aged six, was in the yard, and when Mr. Barnes opened the gate the little chap pointed with his tiny finger and said, “Big man went to de window.” The situation was explained to Mrs. Kennevin, who invited her neighbour to search the house. With his son he went in and went straight to the room into which the boy said the man had climed. Then the real fun began.

Mr. Barnes looked under the bed. The man he wanted was lying on his side puffing like fury. “Come on,” Mr. Barnes said, “I’m going to give you a hiding that you won’t forget for a very long time.” The man would not budge, so he was dragged out by the arm and lifted to his feet. Mr. Barnes even took off his coat. He stepped back a yard or two and delivered two mighty blows that caught the man flush on the jaw and caused him to rock. He made no attempt to retaliate, so Mr Barnes seized him by the throat and shook him and punched him again hard and often on the ribs and side of the head, until the man cried out, “For God’s sake stop and forgive me, and don’t expose me.” The last hit that Mr. Barnes delivered was so forceful that his right thumb was badly split. Mr. Barnes meant business though so lie released his grip, put on his coat, caught hold of the prisoner’s arm, and took him across to “Denver.”- He‘instructed his son to telephone the police, and in the meantime he gave the man a chair in the kitchen and assisted by several other neighbours who had followed in the chase, kept guard over him until the police arrived in a car. Here, however, is the extraordinary incident of the thrashing and the mystery of the burglar’s failure to retaliate. The police recognised him and searched him immediately. In his hip pocket was a fully loaded ’five-chambered “British Bulldog” revolver, in one of his coat pockets was a £lO note, a salary envelope holding £4 His, and a cheque-book. Mr. Barnes searched the rooms and missed the note from a dressing-table drawer; the salary, which belonged to an employee, from a coat which was hanging on the kitchen door; and the cheque-book from a cabinet in the dining room. Residents of peaceful sequestered Perouse Road had not had so much excitement for many a long day. The story bf Mr. Barnes’ masterful dealing with an armed man will rank high among the traditions of the street.