'Ninja' Les Murphy cops a serve to pub bandits
By Neil Keene
September 10, 2009 12:00AM
A GANG of sledgehammer-wielding bandits proved no match for a brave man with the poise and accuracy of a ninja . . . and an armful of plates.
Responding to a burglar alarm at his Mid-North Coast pub early last Thursday morning, Les Murphy was confronted by four masked men armed with sledgehammers and crowbars.
The gang had already smashed their way through the front door of the Riverview Tavern and was ransacking the Telegraph Point pub's poker machines.
"They started singing out: 'I'm going to f . . . ing kill ya' and one of them tried to take a swipe (at me) with the sledgehammer," Mr Murphy said yesterday.
The sledgehammer missed the 58-year-old grandfather's face by centimetres.
He then retreated to the hotel's kitchen.
"This bloke was still coming at me and I'm thinking 'What am I going to do here?'," Mr Murphy said.
"The first thing I saw was a pile of washed-up dinner plates so I just tucked six of them under my arm and started throwing them like Frisbees."
In an instant the tables were turned on the gang.
One plate smashed into one of the bandit's shoulders, another piece of flying crockery whizzed within a whisker of another robber's head.
"Those first two were pretty good shots. They (the robbers) packed it in and ran outside so I raced out, got the number plate of the getaway car and then let a couple more (plates) fly," Mr Murphy said.
Like warning shots across a ship's bow, the first two plates spun over the car's roof.
But the third was on target, flying through an open door and causing mayhem in the car as the bandits sped off. The car was later found torched and abandoned in Kempsey.
Mr Murphy said, in hindsight, he realised that he was taking a massive risk confronting the gang armed only with crockery.
"But at the time all you are thinking about is protecting your property," he said.
"I've got my wife and my daughter in a back flat in the hotel and you start to think (the bandits) could have gone around there."
Thanks to his actions, Mr Murphy not only helped thwart an armed robbery, he earned a new nickname from his mates: Ninja Murphy.
Inspector Alan Williams said police were still investigating the attempted robbery.
The Blue Rajah approves!
"Spiffing good show, old chap!"In other crime news, a robber returns to ask his victim for a date, and a man is arrested for making love to a manure pile. And you thought you were lovelorn!
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