TWO ARE STUNNED IN $13,659 HOLD-UP

The New York Times
December 6, 1922

Auto Robbers Flee With Loot After Knocking Down Cashier and Police Escort.

A policeman and a cashier were knocked down and robbed of $8,770 in cash and $4,899 in checks in a hold-up in front of the office of the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey at Fifth Street and Bergenline Avenue, West New York, yesterday morning.  The robbers escaped in an automobile.  No shots were fired.  After being treated at the North Hudson Hospital in Weehawken for scalp wounds the victims returned to their homes.

The funds were being taken from the commercial office of the gas and electric light companies of the Public Service Corporation to the Union Hill branch of the Trust Company of New Jersey at Bergenline Avenue and Hackensack Plank Road, and were carried in a satchel by John P. Conroy, 26, of 783 Park Avenue, Weehawken, a cashier employed on the West New York office.  Conroy was escorted by Motorcycle Policeman Joseph Truncellito of the Union Hill police.

Conroy was seated in the side car of the motorcycle, which was parked at the curb directly in front of the entrance to the company office on Bergenline Avenue, and the policeman was bending over to pump up a tire when the attack was made by three men.  They were rendered unconscious by blows on the head.  The satchel was torn from Conroy's grasp and the robbers, leaping into their auto, fled toward Fifth Street.

Speeding through Fifth Street until it ended in Hudson Boulevard, the robbers turned south in the boulevard and disappeared.

A witness have the police the license number of the robbers' machine.  The descriptions of the automobile and robbers were said to be vague.

Lieutenant of Detectives Charles Dillman of Union Hill was put in charge of the investigation.  The New York police and the New Jersey State Constabulary have been asked to assist.