First published in The Age on September 30, 1972
Bandits strike 3 times to make it hold-up No. 157
Armed bandits struck three times yesterday to take the year’s hold-ups to a near record 157.
The bandits held up a Commonwealth Bank, a T.A.B. and a service station.
The Commonwealth Bank branch in Surrey Hills where one of the hold-ups occured.Credit:The Age Archives
The hold-up total is only two fewer than for the whole of 1971 — a rate of about one hold-up every second day.
Already the year’s 24 hank raids have passed last year’s total by one.
Two men with sawn-off .22 rifles walked into the Surrey Hills branch of the Commonwealth Bank yesterday and escaped in a stolen car with $4000.
They wore plastic masks, grey felt hats and grey dust coats.
One of the bandits fired a warning shot into the roof of the bank chamber, at the corner of Union and White Horse roads, about 10.30 am.
Detectives from the armed hold-up squad are questioning a taxi driver from Avondale Heights following an armed hold-up at the Alphington T.A.B. half an hour after the bank robbery.
A young man with a pistol walked into the Heidelberg Road T.A.B. and got away with $600 after threatening a 40-year-old woman attendant.
He ran into nearby View Street where he was picked up by a taxi.
In the early hours of yesterday morning two youth, one armed with a rifle, robbed a Flemington service station attendant, Stephen Tucker, 20, of about $90.
Maureen Lucas, 51, watched the bank raid from the window from her interior decorating shop opposite the branch in White Horse Road.
“Two young men, dressed in weird gear, ran from the bank carrying a blue airlines bag and brandishing rifles,” Mrs. Lucas said.
“Two tellers from the bank chased them down a lane but they got away in a white Valiant.”
The getaway car was found by police abandoned in the Surrey Hills railway station car par.
Mrs. Jill Johnson and her young son, Ross, 3, fled from the bank when she saw the two men threaten a teller.
Yesterday’s raid on the Commonwealth Bank brought the total money taken from banks this year to more than $110,000. Last year $325,000 was stolen in bank hold-ups.
The service station bandits, both about 20, made Stephen Tucker lie on the floor of the service station office. They then locked him in a small room after raiding the till of more than $90.
The service station, at the corner of Racecourse and Smithfield roads, is owned by Associated Taxi Services Pty. Ltd.
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