AN Air New Guinea flight attendant was awoken in his Tsim Sha Tsui hotel room by two members of the US Navy who robbed him of inflight duty free takings, a court heard yesterday. Rickie Ashcraft, 21, and Travis Garber, 22, have denied robbing Josephenk Awuki of US$181 (about HK$1,400) as well as 135 Papua New Guinea kina (about HK$1,000), inside a room at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile, Nathan Road, on Tuesday. It is the defence case that Ashcraft and Garber were not involved in any incident inside Mr Awuki's room and the only reason Mr Awuki saw them in the lift lobby when he went to make a report to hotel security was that they were staying in the hotel. Examined by Susanna Ku, prosecuting on a fiat, Mr Awuki said he was woken up at 2.45 am by a knock on the door. Assuming it to be hotel security, he told South Kowloon Court, he answered it and saw the two defendants. He said they entered his room and he saw one take something from his suitcase. After the pair had left his room, he said, he found that US$181 and all but eight kina of the 135 kina inflight duty free takings with which he had been entrusted were missing. Mr Awuki said, knowing it was company money and not his own, he panicked and decided to go down to hotel security. As he left his room, he found the kina had been pushed under the bedroom door, but the US currency was still missing. In the lift lobby he encountered the two defendants and, fearing for his safety, he fled down the fire escape, but met them again downstairs. He said he had not wanted the police to be involved and had begged the defendants to return the money. He said one of the defendants asked him how much money he had lost. Mr Awuki said he replied: ''You should know.'' Cross-examined by defence lawyer Paul Munro, Mr Awuki admitted he had been woken up by the knock on the door and had been ''half asleep'' at the time the robbery allegedly took place. The trial continues before magistrate Bina Chainrai.
