One of the most daring robberies in the history of Concord was committed here about noon today when two negroes robbed H.O. Thompson, manager of the filling station here for the Gulf Refining Co., of more than $50 after rendering him unconscious with a blow on the head. The robbery occurred on West Corbin street, almost in the heart of the business district, and nothing was known of it until Thompson’s sister reached the station with his dinner and fond her brother in a dazed condition.
She immediately notified the police officers who started a hunt for the negroes. It was impossible to get a description of the negroes, but they were driving a Ford sedan with a Tennessee license number on it.
According to Thompson’s story the negroes stopped their car, headed toward Charlotte, a few feet from his station. Both got out and came to the station, asking him to get them an inner tube. Thompson, according to the story he told his sister, stooped over to pick up the tube and the negroes struck him. He does not know what they struck him with.
Thompson does not know how long he was unconscious. Soon after regaining consciousness, however, his sister arrived with his dinner and when informed of the robbery she called police officers. She also notified relatives of the injured man.
Thompson talked incoherently for several minutes after relatives arrived and then became unconscious again. A physician who had been summoned carried him to the Concord Hospital.
Thompson told his sister he had more than $50 in his pockets when the negroes struck him. All of the money was gone when he came to. The inner tube also was gone.
The scene of the robbery is surrounded by business houses and residences. The filling station is just to the side of a Standard station and just in the rear of the Standard Buck Co. It faces Corbin street but had been closed for several months until recently, and Thompson was the only person employed. A high fence shuts off the view form the Standard station to the Gulf Station and for that reason the Standard employes could not see Thompson.
Thompson told his sister he was lying on the floor when he became conscious. He had just crawled into a chair when she arrived, she says he told her.
the fact that no one knows how long a time intervened between the time Thompson was struck and the officers were notified makes it uncertain as to how far the negroes could have traveled before the officers started to hunt. Roads heading in all directions from the city were visited by the officers who have also notified officers in other cities to be on the lookout for the negroes.
The station that Thompson managed is not a large one and does not handle the volume of business that many stations in the city handle. It is evident that the negroes knew this, for they passed the Standard station and stopped just a few feet below it at the Gulf station. The Standard station is one of the most popular in the city, while the Gulf station has been doing only a limited amount of business by reason of the fact that the public generally did not know it was open again.
Physicians who examined Thompson declare that he is suffering with concussion of the brain and his condition is regarded as serious.
From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Wednesday, August 27, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1924-08-27/ed-1/seq-1/#words=AUGUST+27%2C+1924
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