CHINESE BATTERED AND ROBBED

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5309, 23 January 1947, Page 5

CHINESE BATTERED AND ROBBED

( Press Assn, — -j

OVER £1150 SrOLEN i j MASKED MENUSE LOADEO: RUBBER HOSE WEAPONS

By Telegraph — Copyright.)

AUCKLAND, Last Night. Battered about the head with a pieee of rubber hose filled with leacl by two masked men who surprised them in a house in Yelverton Terrace, off Grey's Avenue, at midnight 011 Tuesday night, two Chinese were robbed of money, gold, and jewellery of a total value of £1154. Both Chinese are in hospital. Their assailants escaped. The victims aive: Charlie Wong Chuck, aged 76-, a pensioner, of 6 Yelverton Terrace, and Fong Hon, aged 48, laundryman, of Grey's Avenue. The crime, which was carried out. between midnight and 12.10 a.m., de■pressed the Chinese community, as to-day is the Chinese New Year and sucb an incident is 'regarded as a bad omen by many of them. The Town Ilall clock was chiming midnight when Chuck and Hon arrived at the gate leading to the former's house. W'ong Chuck became suspicious when he noticed that the front gate was wide open, as he had closed it when he left. He also remembered that the .previous night he 'had foupd a window half open. •On entering the house he switched on the light in the sitting room and walked into the kitchen, which was in dai^kness. Hon sat on a settee in the sitting room. As Wong Chuck was about to switch on the light in the kitchen two masked men sprang at him. One lcnocked him to the floor and beat him .across the head with a piece >of rubber hose filled with lead. Hon ran into the kitchen, taking with him a large electrlc torch. With this he attaclced' the man Who was wielding the leaded hose. The two fell to the floov, rolling over and over, each aiming blows at each other, They struggled for five-minutes or so. Then Hon's attaeker called his companion, v;ho picked up the hose and struclc Hon several blows on the head. Hon was dazed and conld no longcr resist. Safe Opened With Key Looking round Ilon saw that Wong Chuck was unconseious and >was lying in a pool of blood. Beeause of his eondition, Ilon eo'uld not prevent Wong Chuck and himself from being robbed. He saw one of the men take £70 in - five pound notes from Wong Chuck's poclcets. The key of Wong Chuck's safe, which was in the sitting room, was also taken. Both ;nen went into the sittingroom, -unloeked the safe and took about £540 in American dollars," mostly 20 and 10-dollar bills, 11 New Zealand £50 notes, two sovereigns, half a sovereign, a £2 British Jubilee coin, a gold chain and other gold jewellery. Shortly after the two men had left the house, Hon, who had four long euts on the head and another long- cut on his riglit cheek, succeeJed in stag- „ gering out into Grey's Avenue, where he told another Chinese of what had occurred. Ilon's shirt was drenched in blood. When he heard of the incident, >Mr. •Norman Wong Doo, of a cafe just across the road, went to the Central Police S'tation and informed the police, A patrol car with uniformed police and detectives quickly arrived, but a search of the locality revealed no trace of the t-wo assailants. Mr. Doo also called a St. John Arabulanee, which took the injured -Chinese to hospital. Wong 'Chuck was still lying on the kitchen floor in an unconseious eondition when the -police arrived. Alongside him was a bloodstained piece of half-inch rubber hose about 12 inches in length. One end of it was bound with a woman's silk stocking. Althougli badly assaulted the eondition of the two -Chinese is not regarded as serious. The hospital authorities describe the eondition of both as fair. Safe Contaming £500 Is Stolen From Wharf Premises AUCKLAND, last night. A lieavy little safe on wheels, containing about £500 in banknotes, was wheeled cut cf the Prince's Wharf ofFice of the Auckland .Launch and Towboat Company late last night and carried away by thieves, who probably used a motor truck. This morning the safe was discovered with a gaping hole in the bottom, near the entrance t •• Eden Park, by the tram. loop. All the money had been taken, and papers and a few eoins were scattered avonnd. Two employees of the company are heavy losers, about half the £500 being their money. One had sold his ■car, and had put the cash in the safe yesterday afternoon in the expcctation of banldng it the following morning. The other employee was about to buy a car. Access . Through Rear Window Ordinarily there is little money left in the J-/aunch and Towboat Company's safe. That the company had about £250 in the premises w'as due to pressure of oft'ice work since the week-end and inability to bank the money. The thieves g'ained access through an inset window at the rear of the small office, which is at the city end of the wharf. Between the window and the edg-e of the wharf there is a clearanee of about 3ft. A panel was smashed so that the window cateh might be unfastened. Mounted on small wheels, the safe was removed without much difficulty. Apparently it was pushed through the front door. Victoria University 'College cricketers arriving at Eden ' Parlc for their

match with Auckland Univers'i|y . -College were ' surprised to iind . .th® broiken safe, amid a litter of docj£r ments. _ 41. The thieves had cut a sufficient^y large hole in the bottom to abstragt - the contents. Gold chisels had be^i used on the steel casing and asbgstps lining. ' . " • .fj Early in. the forenoon, police rfmoved the safe to ihe Central fkJlee Station. • ,