MOTOR BANDITS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 418, 30 December 1932, Page 2

MOTOR BANDITS

ON AMERICAN ROADS BLACKMAIL AND ROBBERY ARE COMMONLY PRACTISED DANGERS OF MOTORING I j Americans" have read with sym- | pathetic interest recent accounts of I bandits preying on English motorists | at night- along country roads (writes the New York eorrespondent of the Manchester Guardian). The United States has for many years suffered ■ from the same trouble, and to an extent which' makes it a serious one. The j 'snormous distances in this country j rnean that there are everywhere j great stretches of highway which are far from any town or village, and the motor-car bandit therefore runs little risk of capture. His most-common method of working is the guise of an innocent "hitchhiker," trudging along the highway in- search of "a lift." The unwary motorist who yields to the universal sign language of the road, a thumh jerked over one's ■ shoulder in the direction of the hiker wishes to travel, finds a revolver thrust into his ribs, and is quickly relieved of his money and usually of his car as well, and is left ' a melancholy pedestrian reflecting upon the follies of hospitality. So serious has this evil become that some States have passed laws forbidding motorists to offer a ride to ■strangers. Otber States, with the same end in view, have established statutes making possible heavy monetary damages to anyone injured ! while riding in another person's car. ' Some of the most successful of these ; bandits are women. Several of them | have become quite famous for youth ' y.oud looks, and hardness of heart. • A pretty girl on the high road stands | a better chance of being offered a ; ride than does a man, and after the ! hold-up is finished her victim is somelimes too much humiliated to report ■ Ihe incident to the police. Another important variety of highi w.uy crime is committed late at night, j iu.:mlly by two or more confederates. : Seeing a car "approach, tbey step into the middle of the road with upliftted hand, commanding a halt; not infrequently they are dressed as police officers. Once a motorist has stopp-sd the procedure is the customary one — he is robbed, his car stolen, and frequently Ke is battered into unconsciousness as well. In certain parts of the country criminals reap a harvest from a type of activity which perhaps comes under the head of extortion or blackmail rather than robbery. As everyone knows, the American motorcar is extensively used by people of all ages who are in love. They drive into a secluded 'spot, park the car, ; and are lost in the contemplation of one another when a rough individual approaches and wants to know "What's the big idea ? " He is usually dressed as a police officer, and explains that both parking the car and the actions of the occupants are illegal and extracts a "fine" of as much money as the victims possess. Sometimes he does not pretend to be an officer, but simp'ly threatens to report the car to the nearest police station unless he is hribed to refrain. Occasionally he simply takes the money. The disadvantage of this last method however, is that, having committed actual theft, he may he reported to the police and become a fugitive from justice, wh'ereas as long as he confines himself to blackmail it is unlikely that he will be caught. Thousands of Americans alarmed by the risks of night driving, habitually carry firearms in their cars. As a general rule, however, these are not used even when the hold-up takes place, since the bandit is also armed and has the advantage of the initiative. The frequeney of hold-ups is closely allied to inadequate lighting of highways. The bandit dare not operate, even on the loneliest road if other passing cars could see what he was doing. His first act is therefore to put out the lights on his car and that of his victim, so that passers by see only an abandoned automobile or two by the roadside presumably under repair. A campaign is now in progress to light the highways of the United States and to have as niany of them as possible patrolled by the motor-cycle police, who now administer the traffic laws, and it is expected that with progress in these | movements the amount of motor-car robbery will be greatly reduced.