A MEAN THEFT

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2198, 10 July 1914, Page 6

A MEAN THEFT

OLD BOTTLE,GATHERER 1 ROBBED,

■ The. humble'bottle gatherer is .surely the last person in the world that (one ■ would expect to suffer at the.hands"-of. .■ Jthe; thief That some-thieves. howeverv "can stoop so low as to despoil the gatherer of'."dead /marines" of-.part of his ' only -convertible; asset is proved by ; aA. case which came. beforo the Auckland Magistrate's Court on AVednesday. An aged bottle gatlierer. named .So'nghurst,': who travels jfchat, city in a donkey cart. ' in.his professional .capacity,;.one:day . last;weak entered one of : the establish-/..

ments where bottles,^and,! incidentally, larger utensils' are robbed of: their.contents .in search of ."eniptiesi" leaving his cart ;and bottles outside. ". There.arrived on the', scene one Thouias George Little. Theft was. no new profession ■to Thomas, and seeing. that, tne coast was !clear he Seized one.'of the bags .".of "marines"' from the'cart'and hied away to >a s'ec6nd L hand emporiuin, where he realised orithe stolen property. '.AVhen poor i old' Solbghurst; came ;out - : of -the hotel .with more bottles he observed that his stock iii; hand had diminished. The police were informed/ with the,; Tesulfc that Little. appeared '.before', the "-'local Magistrate, and that! gentleman: sent .Little-'for a period of a. fortnight to an establishment where*bottles are'seldomj \if ever-, seen.: .•.'.•;'. > ':. ; v r - ; ::;. ,'_,'■:{. ■'■■.^[.■.