Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-07-02
4 AUTO BANDITS
FO|[ED At PO|NT 7
OF GUN;1 | HELD
Quick Action of Mechanics
Vile Garage Owners Saves
Their Loss

Quick action on the part of John
w. Holmes and John j. Deegan of this
city, proprietors of the garage on the
Sayreville Road in Mechanicsville just
at the end of the Perth Amboy Bridge
upset the plans of four auto bandits
and caused the arrest of one of them
in an attempted early morning hold
up today.
One of the party, who gave his name
as Richard Hoberman of 92 Storm
avenue, Jersey City is being held in
the county Jail in default of S 1000 bail
following his arraignment before Re-
corder Pickersgill this morning. The
man was arrested by Officer Gutow-
ski.
About 2:3o o'clock this morning
Mr.. Holmes and Mr. Deegan were
awakened by ring at their night
bell, the garage owners having ar
ranged to sleep in an apartment over
their shop. Mr.. Holmes went to the
stairs and called down. "All right
Jack. I'll be down in a second" but
without waiting for him to come down
tall man came up the stairs and
asked the way to Keansburg. Mr..
Holmes told him clearly but the
stranger kept repeating his questions.
Becoming suspicious of the autoist's
action Mr.. Holmes looked downstairs
ftilo saw a llldll lchlHE duLOHlODllG
shoes out of the office on his should
er.
In a flash the garage proprietor
seized his revolver and covered the tall
man with the inquisitorial air. Then
he marched him downstairs and
found two men in an auto outside,
the third man carrying a tire out of
the shop and two other tires piled on
the back of the car.
q y !.
I'll blow you're heads off," said Mr.
Holmes with the air of a dime novel
hero, but thinking all the time what
would happen if one of the bunch
pulled a gun on him.
'.Aw that's all right, boss We fell
lers been drinking and we didn't mean
nuthin,' " one of the men said.
That's all right too, but I'm not
drunk and you take those tires off that
car quick or there'll be lots of
trouble" was Mr.. Holmes reply.
The two who were in the auto did
as directed but not before the tall
stranger had an opportunity to slip
around to the other side of the car,
jump into the front seat and get the
auto under way. Two shots failed to
halt the intruders and the last Mr.
Holmes saw of the three was the red
tail light vanishing down the road at
mile a minute CLIP.
But when the three escaped they
left their fourth comrade behind. BY
this time Mr.. Deegan had come down
stairs with shot gun and telephone
call to Perth Amboy Police head
quarters brought officer Gutowski in
the patrol in a hurry. The whole af-
fair probably took less than two
minutes. And it wasn't till the whole
thing was over that Mr.. Holmes real
ized how cool the early morning air
was as he stood at the entrance Of his
garage in his pajamas.
When arraigned before the record
er this morning Hoberman told the
judge that he was twenty-six years
old and lived in Jersey City but oper-
ated a jitney in Hoboken. He show
ed a jitney operators badge. He said
that he was waiting last night at the
station in Hoboken with his auto to
take taxi passengers. The three men
were strangers to him, he said, and
asked to be taken for a joyride. The
party went to Newark and then de-
cided to go to Keansburg where they
knew some girls, he said. His driv-
er's license showed that he owned
the car, No. 10S,879, N. ]. license.
The unfortunate part of his story is
that Holmes told the recorder that
he was not the man who asked the
way as a chauffeur naturally would,
but that it was he who was carrying
the tires into the automobile.
The garage was recently taken over
by Holmes and Deegan following
robbery of the place not three weeks
ago. 1t was operated at that time
by Charles Fagin and several hundred
dollars worth of tires and tools were
stolen. Before that it had been
fayorite Mace for thieves who make
a practice of robbing lonesome coun-
try garages.
Police of nearby cities have been
notified by Chief of Police Patrick j.
Burke to be on the lookout for the
machine, which is Ford touring
car of the number given. 1t is prob
able that the thieves will desert the
car on some country road and try to
beat their way back to Hudson coun-
ty on foot.
!