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Iconic Cartoonist has the Last Laugh
Appears in
By Liz Harfull
Published 2018
Senior Constable Aaron Roche was a little impatient when an elderly man offered to help them catch the criminal who had just invaded his suburban Melbourne home and stolen his grandson’s bicycle. The man wanted to sketch the offender, but time was wasting and the police officer didn’t think a stick-figure drawing would help. Little did Roche realise that the 82-year-old crime victim was none other than celebrated cartoonist Bill Green.
Better known to his fans as WEG, Green only had moments to take in the burglar’s face when he discovered the thief in his backyard one Sunday morning in January 2006. ‘I heard this awful cursing and swearing. It was the foulest language I ever heard,’ Green told The Age newspaper in a story that made headlines around the world. ‘He tried to brush me aside, him being much bigger than me. I thought if I got into a fight, I’d lose my dressing gown and I’d end up starkers.’