Daring Thieves “Roll Out The Barrell”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 95, 3 June 1949, Page 5

Daring Thieves “Roll Out The Barrell”

Although they had already consumed a large quantity of beer in the Te Teko Hotel on May 21, David Nepia, alias Hona, single, farmer, and Ching Ririnui, married, tractor driver, both of Te Teko, were still not satisfied. So they decided to roll the full 18 gallon keg of beer on which they were sitting away from the hotel and drink the lot at their leisure. This they did right under the‘eyes of the barmen, but unfortunately for them they were seen by somebody outside the hotel.

The result was that they appeared before Messrs H. G. Warren and I. B. Hubbard, J’s.P., in the Whakatane Police Court yesterday charged with stealing a keg of 18 gallons of beer valued at £5. Both pleaded guilty and Nepia was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment and Ririnui was convicted and fined £1 and ordered to pay another £5, cost of the beer.

For the police Constable R. F. Julian said that the pair had rolled the keg out of the hotel and loaded it on to a truck. They then carted it out to a paddock where they poured the beer into cream cans. Later that night it was consumed at the Te Teko dance. The loss of the keg from the hotel was not discovered until the stocktaking after 6 p.m. It was later recovered in the paddock.