CRIME IN SYDNEY.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18139, 2 October 1930, Page 3

CRIME IN SYDNEY.

A GROCER MENACED.

THREATENED WITH REVOLVER. Although menaced by a revolver, Albert Roach, grocer, of Patrick Street, Hurstville won a game of bluff with a masked '-gunman in his shop, says a Sydney paper. v He thus saved his week’s takings, which _ amounted to a considerable sum. Roach was standing behind the front counter of his shop about sefen o’clock when the masked man walked in and leveller a nickel-plated revolver at his head. The following conversation -between the two men shows how the nerve of the shopkeeper threw the gunman off his balance: — Gunman: Come on, hand it over! Roach: Hand what over? Gunman: Your money. Roach: You’ll get no, money here. Gunman: I want it. Roach: You’re not getting it; and if you stay much longer you’ll get something else. The two men then stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments, and the gunman suddenly flinched and said: “I thought I could do it, but I can’t. You don’t’ understand. I have been out of work for a long time.” * ■ . ...... He then turned and walked from the shop. As he did so, he said to. Roach: “Am I alright?” Roach answered: "You’ll be alright if you leave that revolver.” He did not take this advice. Roach says that the man appeared to be about 19 years of age, and he would know him again. Roach had just flqished serving a customer, when the intruder walked in. Not many people were about, as tfie hold-up took place at a time when most residents were having dinner.

CLERGYMAN BATTERED.

MYSTERIOUS WOUNDING AT MANSE When he staggered to a house at Camperdown Rev. J. G. Robertson, Presbyterian minister, was found to have a severe gash on the back of the head, says a Melbourne message. He was unable to account for the wound. He was sleeping alone at the manse, to which he returned after having attended the Presbyterian Assembly in Sydney.

Awakened by a noise in the house he made a move to get up. After that he remembered nothing. The bed on which he had been lying was covered with ,blood and the room bespattered. The police searched the place, but were unable to And any trace of an intruder.

FOUND WOUNDED AND BLEEDING. A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR. When an. insurance agent was found in a dazed condition at White Bay, Sydney, bleeding from a wound in the shoulder, he told the police a sensational story of how he had been held up by two men, one of whom had fired a revolver at him. The man said he was waiting for a tram at Whit Bay about 3 a.m. to go to his home when two men approached him. One, he said, grabbed him by the coat and took a wallet, containing £l9, from his inside co-at pocket. He struck the man, ‘who. retaliated by producing a revolver and firing a shot, the bullet striking him on the shoulder. He was taken in a police car to the Balmain Hospital where his injuries were attended to. He was then allowed to go home. Subsequently the agent was interviewed by Detective-Sergeant Walsh, and is alleged to have admitted that his story with regard to the hold-up was a fabrication. He refused to state, however, how he received the bullet wound, and added, it is stated, that the case was not one for police inquiry. He admitted, it is alleged, that he, had lost the money during the night,' but would not say where or in what way.