OCR Text |
Show Bandit Holds Up Bryce Park Inn Escapes With Thousands An armed robber escaped from Union Pacific's Bryce Canyon Inn at Bryce Canyon National Park early Tuesday morning with about $4000. The robber w as described as being between 35 to 40 years of age. weighing 160 to 175 pounds, about 5 feet ten inches in height, with reddish clipped mustache and longish reddish to sandy hair, wearing a trench coat, dark glasses, and a small-brimmed hat. At about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, the robber knocked on the locked cafeteria door and when night watchman Russ Apperson, about 76 years old, answered, menaced him with a small pocket-sized revolver and forced him Into the cooler where he locked him In. In order to get the watchman to open the door, the robber told him that his daughter was evidently suffering an attack of appendicitis and needed a doctor. The robber than rounded up Inn manager Earl Thomsen and his wife, and forced them at gun point to open the small safe in which the Inn receipts were kept. After securing the money he locked them into the cafeteria freezer. Mrs. Thomsen noticed that the meat hooks in the freezer could be used as a wrench to remove bolts from a large hanging bar in the freezer which they then used to pry open the freezer door, after being in the locker for about one-half hovr. They then released the night watchman and reported the teft to Union Pacific security which in turn notified the Utah Highway Patrol and Garfield County Sheriff George Middleton. Several persons were questioned and released after the watchman and manager failed to identify them as being the culprit. |