"Stick 'em Up"

Making a routine survey of the main street just before midnight one Tuesday night, Mine Host was witness to a very rare scene. (Very rare in this sleepy part of the world)

A policeman was walking along the edge of the street. Mine Host recognised him as one half of the duo rostered to work the overnight shift this week.

The second policeman was walking in a line abreast with the first, but the other side of the carriageway.

When 2 policemen walk several metres apart, it is almost always serious.

"They are after that bloke in the singlet" spoke a bystander, the manager of the next pub (actually he was behind me, and the only other person present). Indeed, a careful squint revealed a figure standing under the awning of the shops on the next block, clad in singlet and jeans .

The policemen, from a distance of about 50 metres, told the mysterious singlet wearer to place his hands on his head, to move off the footpath & out into the middle of the street, then turn around so his back was to them, and lift his shirt.

As the "wanted man" did this, the two police officers moved into his 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions.

However the most dramatic twist was that both police had their pistols out and pointed at the "person of interest".

While one moved in and at arm's lenth patted down the stationary figure ( who was standing in a star-shaped position), the other remained back twenty metres with his pistol fixed unwaveringly on the singlet clad target.

Pat-down complete, the pistol remained fixed on the baddie, whilst the other policeman backed the paddy wagon up to a point some twenty metres distant from where the prisoner stood. The door of the padd wagon was then unlocked & left open.

Both police moved back to a 3 o'clock & 6 o'clock position, all the while drawn guns pointed at the wanted man.

The prisoner was then instructed to approach the paddy wagon under his own steam and to put himself into the cage. He was then instructed to move to the furthers point from the cage door.

One officer then approached the paddy wagon & locked it.

Only then did the other officer holster his pistol.

Many people have been arrested near the Wayside Tavern, but never before has the prisoner had to stand waiting in the middle of an empty street while a paddy wagon is backed up to him.

I & the other publican were the only people to witness the event. Neither of us know any more than what we saw that night.