Tweed Jacket Man

When we left off on Monday, Mary Brown and Shirley Parsons, legal secretaries working late at 508 Hornby Street, had just found a man in a tailor's shop being beaten by another man in a tweed jacket with a cane. A man in white overalls had answered Mary's cry for assistance while Shirley ran back to the office to call the police.

So Mary, the man in the tweed jacket and the man in overalls are standing by the front door of the tailor shop and Mary has just accused the man with the cane of beating the third man laying on the floor of the shop. Now, another man - this one in a blue overcoat who appeared to have been drinking - joined them. The man in the overalls, not believing Mary's story, said, "Yes, he must have been having a fit." He then stood aside and allowed the man in the tweed jacket walk out of the store. The tweed jacket man proceeded down Hornby Street towards Pender.

At that moment, the man who had been beaten sat up and said, "It's a hold-up, please help me."

Mary told the two men standing there to stop the tweed jacket man but they made no effort to do so. Mary was scared but also angry and she went after the assailant on her own.

Tweed jacket man had reached Pender Street and turned East. Mary rushed to the corner and looked along Pender but tweed jacket man was nowhere to be seen.

He hadn't had time to reach the other end of the block so it stands to reason that he must have ducked into one of the buildings.

Mary walked back to the parking lot behind her office building and looked beneath the cars in case he was hiding there but tweed jacket man had disappeared. She walked back to the store to check on the man who was injured. She then saw the man in the blue overcoat get into a car and drive off.

At the store, Mary saw that the man in the overalls was gone but she was joined by Shirley who told her the police were on their way.

The two women then went into the store to check on the victim. He was an elderly man and he had managed to pick himself up and was sitting in a chair. He was shaking badly but his injuries did not appear to be serious. He was holding a wallet in his hands and told the women that tweed jacket man had robbed him of $8.00.

He asked Mary to hand him his hat, which was lying on the floor of the cubicle. She did so. He placed the hat on his head and told her that his assailant had come in and asked for a pair of trousers. Tweed jacket then called the tailor into the changing cubicle to check the fit. That was when the tailor was attacked.

Constables Nebisuk and Burton came into the store as the man was telling his story. They were responding to Shirley's telephone call.

Thanks to Joe Swan and his book Policebeat for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill