AT PISTOL POINT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1938, Page 6

AT PISTOL POINT

PETROL STATION ROBBED IN CHRISTCHURCH TWO ASSISTANTS HELD UP BY BANDIT. LATTER ESCAPES IN CAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Held up at the point of a revolver, an assistant at the Motorways Ltd petrol station at Chaney’s corner was last night compelled to hand over to a bandit £24 in notes from the office till, and was shut up in an adjoining room, with another attendant, until the robber made good his escape in a car. Mr Don Laugesen, manager of the station, describing the robbery this morning, said the. normal time of closing for the bowser was midnight. Business was slack, there being only ond car every quarter of an hour to be served. At 11.35 p.m., a 1936 model Chevrolet four-door sedan car, coloured black, drew into the centre path in the bowser, facing north, there being a line of pumps on either side. An assistant, Kenneth Halligan, aged '2O, was on duty. The driver of the car asked him for one gallon of petrol and when this had been put in produced half a crown. The driver climbed out of the car on the driving side, which was furthest away from the lights, and turned towards the office' to collect his change from Halligan. “He went up to the door to get his - change and just as Halligan opened the till he noticed that this man was holding a revolver, which was poking out from his overcoat,” continued Mr Laugesen. Halligan promptly closed the till drawer. The man’s first words were: “Stick ’em up” Halligan then raised his hands above his head. “Now open her up,” added the bandit, and Halligan rang on the halfpenny lever and opened the till. “The one pound note division in the drawer was nearest the man, and he again told Halligan, mumbling this time, to give him the money,” Mr Laugesen stated. “The man took the notes in his left hand and rammed them into his overcoat pocket, watching Halligan all the time. The notes were handed over three and four at a time. Another assistant, Clarence Clark, had at this stage come up behind Halligan. Waving his revolver, the bandit motioned the two men to move back into the room and he closed the door on them. A few seconds later he opened it again quickly, to make certain they had not moved. He walked to his car and drove off, .and by the time Halligan and Clark had rushed out of the office, the car was speeding down Marshland Road towards the city. They noticed that the car had no number plates.” Shortly after midnight, Constable Anderson, of Belfast, and three detectives arrived to make inquiries. One of the door handles was removed by the detectives in their search for finger prints.