The gang uses a nearby hill as a vantage point to signal when potential victims are approaching.
From dawn until dusk, they quietly tie up and frog-march their marks into the bush.
The criminals are surprisingly friendly, distributing grog and teasing the travellers about travelling without revolvers.
The Otago Police Gazette describes one suspect as stout with a "florid complexion", wearing "rather old moleskin trousers with red clay marks".
A second is of a "rather respectable appearance" with "small, clean white hands", dressed in a dark shooting coat and a "new cabbage-tree hat".
A third is "very thick set", with light red hair and whiskers, sporting a "black wide-a-wake hat" and a "red and black Crimean shirt" .
Highway robbery was a real threat as criminals stalked remote highways in the early years of European settlement.
This became even more of a challenge as staggering amounts of gold began to be extracted from Otago diggings.
The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle described the glittering riches drawing both miners and criminals to the region.
"The Otago gold-fields promise to realise all the success the most sanguine could anticipate of them."
Small provincial police forces were quickly overwhelmed by the influx of young men seeking fortunes.
Authorities responded by introducing armed gold escorts.
The Otago Witness described one such escort arriving in Dunedin.
"The escort arrived last night with 35,100 ounces of gold, and seven prisoners.
"The roads were very heavy, and the horses came in much ‘baked’.
"The cortege as it dashed up Princes St (the horses seemed to know it was their last effort) had quite an imposing appearance, notwithstanding the heavy rain that was falling at the time."
As darkness falls on the Maungatua Range, the miscreants depart with their spoils of about £185, a horse and several watches.
They promise to return at about 10pm that night to release the captives. However, one prisoner breaks free and is able to release the others and inform the local magistrate.
Despite efforts to track the brigands, authorities fear they have already escaped on the steamship City of Hobart.
