The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-01
Q ARMED ROBBERS
 IN RIOT
Hold-up New Years
 Celebration in Pine St.
 Failing to Get Store Receipts They Open Fire With Six RevOIv- CTS and Terrorize Men.

Interrupting hilarious New Years celebration which was in progress at the time, six armed desperadoes perpetrated a daring raid upon the coffee house conducted by Freedman Lakatos, at 364 Pine street, in the early hours of this morn ing, and failing in an attempt to rob the proprietor of his days receipts, wrecked the place by opening fire with half a dozen revolYers.
 They fired into tables, chairs, coun- ters. showcases and other fixtures, at heaps Of dishes at the cash reg fster. at the desk s.nd everywhere. Then thev went about finishing with their hands the work of destruction started with their weapons. and when they had finished. they had left har4dr- ]y a thing that resembled its former self.
 Property worth several hundreds of rollars was found to be damaged when, after the intruders had gone, Lakatos and his employees made a nasty inspection of thS premises. The kitchen and dining room were almost completely demolished. and conditions were such that the proprietor was unable to reopen his place for busi- ness today.
 This morning Lakatos reported the occurrence to the police. and an in vestigation is in progress. The man gave a fairly complete description of 1 the six gunmen. and every effort will be made to apprehend them. Lakatos informed the authorities that he had taken in cutie a bit of money during 1 the day, but had placed it in safe keeping before resuning business for the night. and consequently this money escaped the hands of the thieves.
 The establishment was crowded with patrons, but none were injured, every person finding shelter behind some 1 overturned table or other piece oi | furniture in time to escape the rain of bullets. Firing continued for sew eral minutes. and about 50 shots were discharged before the marauders withdrew, none the richer for theil bold effort.
 It was just 20 minutes after mid night when the gunmen, six in mum
 Der, entered the place in a boisteroui manner, and walked up to the cash ier's desk, where LAkatos sat. The!
 were laughing and shouting, and t.
 the merry makers seated at the ta
 bles they appeared to be merely ;
 crowd of young fellows out for goot time and somewhat under the influ
 ence of, liquor.
 Suddenly man, who appeared t
 be the leader, whipped a pistol iron
 his pocket and pointed it at Lakatos at the same time commanding tn
 frightened proprietor to shell out Iakatos sat as though stunned, an' , made no move to comply. The com mand was repeated and this time tn
 man opened his cash register and in vited the robber to inspect it.
 A quick glance showed the hold-ul man that the till was almost empty save for a small amount of silver, ant :, that the amount was not woth talk ing, He gave expression to his dis appointment, and muttered somethin to the five with him. Almost in stantly afterward, a revolver appear
 ed in each mans hand.
 Pointing their weapons at the pa
 irons, the desperadoes ordered ther | | to throw up their hands, and when
 had dons so, commanded them leave the restaurant. Then, withou
 waiting for all to escape in the ma Il scramble which followed, the si
 thieves commenced shooting.