SNATCH THIEF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1939, Page 9

SNATCH THIEF

WOMEN’S HANDBAG STOLEN. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 9. A middle-aged woman, Miss Alice Molloy, Grafton, had her bag snatched from her hand while she was walking down Queen Street, near the entrance to Myers Park tonight. In spite of a determined chase by two civilians and a thorough search by detectives the man escaped. Miss Molloy said she was walking along when suddenly a man stepped cut from behind a hoarding, gave her a sharp push and grabbed the bag she was carrying under her arm. She screamed as she stumbled and her cries attracted the attention of two men on the opposite side of the street. As they looked in her direction they saw the man disappear in the darkess behind the hoarding. They immediately started in pursuit, and, near the children’s playing area, they caught sight of tne man picking himself up from a fall over a seat. He kept to the darker patches in the park and was thus able to make hie escape. A passer-by rang central police, and a squad of detectives was dispatched to comb the neighbourhood, but the man had too much start.