SERIES OF THEFTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 23

SERIES OF THEFTS

CHARGES AGAINST ESCAPEE

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) PEILDING, 14th February. Extraordinary were the experiences of a youth named Randall James Ferguson (17), who was before the Court to-day charged with theft and false pretences.

According to a statement by Sergeant Cahill, Ferguson had confessed to a series of misdemeanours since escaping from Weraroa State Farm a few days ago. Ferguson'informed the police he had escaped from the farm on Bth February. He went to a camp where ho stole a ■ man's clothes and hid his own branded clothes. He reached Wellington by riding on cars, and in the city he appropriated food and slept in a railway carriage at Lambton Station. Obtaining rides in cars again to Palmerston North, he booked a room at an. hotel and got meals there. He stole fruit, obtained clothing from shops by telling the story of a relative coming, then proceeded to Feilding, where he obtained more clothes by giving the names of local residents, which names lie had found in the telephone book. He took the local poundkeeper's horse from a side street and rode into the country, where ho was arrested by Constable Kuddell.

When Ferguson was brought, before the Court he was remanded to.. 'appear next week before a Magistrate.