Fleeing Robber Believed Wounded in Early Monday Garage Stick Up
January 10, 1931
Night watchman is slugged while searching for sneak thief with flashlight; fires four shots in attempt to halt flight of bandit.
Makes Escape in Car
$33 in small change taken; another service station is broken into; presumably by same man; inside job rumor is spiked by garage head.
Attacked and slugged by a robber early Monday morning at the Smith Auto company’s garage, Cyril C. Houghton, 30, employed by that firm as a night watchman, saved his life by firing four shots at the fleeing burglar in a bold and partly successful stick-up and rifling of the company’s cash register.
The robber, who gained entrance to the firm’s workshop through a small pane of glass in the rear of the building, stealthily picked his way to the front part of the building and emptied the cash register. Houghton, alone in the building and partly asleep in the basement at the time the man gained his entrance, was awakened by the rattling glass and the bell on the register and came upstairs to investigate the noise.
Picking his way with a flashlight through a number of cars in the rear of the shop from whence the first noises came, he was startled by a demand to stick up his hands. As he did so, a small, slight and with defective eyes darted out from behind the and autos slugged him. Dazed by the blow, he fell to the floor.
The man ran and broke another of the small panes of glass and began to climb through to freedom. As he was doing so, Houghton came out of his daze, drew his revolver from his hip pocket and fired four shots.
One of the slugs went through the door which the robber was climbing. A second struck a bracket in the fender of a nearby car and a third pierced the top of the fender and lodged in the door. Houghton believes the fourth shot struck the man in the leg. “I tried to disable him to prevent his escape,” Houghton said, adding that he didn’t want to kill the man.
Houghton was none the worse for his harrowing experience. The robber jumped into a waiting car and made good his escape. Neighbors, aroused by the firing of the shots, pursued the tracks of the car but were unable to catch up with it. It is believed two men were implicated in the hold-up and they are believed to have headed in the direction of Reno following their escape.
Investigation disclosed that $33 in dimes, nickels, pennies, quarters and half dollars had been taken from the register. Further investigation disclosed that a service station operated by C. M. Anderson just across the street from the Smith garage had also been broken into. This job is believed to have been attempted by the same pair. Several other auto firms are believed to have been, marked for hold-ups by the bandits.
Llwewllyn Mathews, Forman of the Smith company, Thursday spiked rumors to the effect that the robbery had been an inside job.
Mathews himself phoned Reno and Red Bluff authorities and notified them of the robbery and the fleeing car but believed that he did so too late. The men had time to reach either place before the call reached authorities.
Sheriff Leavitt and George Dobyns were called shortly after the hold-up and shooting but were unable to render assistance.
The car used by the robbers is believed to have been a stolen one and was said to be of the sedan type, although Houghton disagrees and says it was a roadster.
