1960 Memory From My Dad About His Shoe Shop Manager Father

A Memory of Kingsbury.

I'm trying to track down the newspaper article on the story below from around 1960 that my dad recently shared with me, does anyone recall the shoe shop called Argos Shoes (or similar) or can offer any other info that might help me?

When I was about 15 or so, Dad was the manager of 5 shops called ‘Argos’ based in Kingsbury and other areas in North London. One day 3 girls, 18-19 years old came into the shop in Kingsbury and tried on a lot of shoes but then left without buying anything. At the time the shop had a delivery of new shoes and they were left just inside the front door of the shop.

Shortly later the girls came back into the shop again and asked to try on more shoes. While they were trying them on 3 lads came in and each grabbed about 4 boxes of the delivered shoes which were still by the door and ran out followed by the girls.

Dad was having lunch at the back of the shop and the young lady who was serving the girls came to the back of the shop and said to Dad that they had been robbed. Dad told her to call the police and ran after them.

I have told you several times that Dad, who wasn’t the largest man in the world -but the toughest man I ever knew, ran out of the shop and chased them down the road. Two of the lads and the 3 girls went into Kingsbury tube station but one of the lads continued running down the road carrying 4 boxes of shoes. Dad caught up with him at Kingsbury roundabout. The lad dropped the shoes and believe it or not pulled a knife on Dad.

Dad (a trained special forces parachutist) dropped him in seconds and held him until the police arrived and the lad was arrested. The police then caught all of the other girls and blokes on the underground train at Wembley Station a few minutes later and arrested them. Dad got the shoes back and the police gave Dad a commendation.