LOVE TWICE JOLTED

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 13

LOVE TWICE JOLTED

MOTIVE |N TWO §IW HfiE CASES The old French injunction to look for the lady jyb6n crime is committed holds good in flios't instances"' (writes the Auckland ‘ Star’s ’ Sydjiey correspondent, March 22)t It may not be particularly 'applicable, but in two cases in which strange features arc predominant, handled tfy detectives this week, there was a strong love interest, and the motive in both' instances was undpubtedy possession of the ladies affections. 1 hi pne are concerned a youth and a girl. They had been keeping company for about twelve months, and they wanted to marry, though neither is more than eighteen years of age. Finance, of course, was the barrier; but with love as an incentive the young man conceived a brilliant scheme to gain a nest egg. It was due to the fact that the execution ot the scheme was lacking in finesse that another mysterious crime is not listed for detection. The girl, an expert ty piste and stenographer, took a position in a large Sydney insurance office. The first day she was employed there she stole a cheque'from the company’s'boot—-one of"the lipst cheques, the loss of which would! nob be discovered perhaps lor a week. She also got hold of 'the two signatures necessary to make the company’s cheques negotiable, and these were traced on the cheque fonn by both the girl and the boy. They were, ot course, excellent imitations, and when a cheque fory £3lO was presented to the company’s bank the jedgerkeeper had no hesitation in certifying them as correct. But the astute paying teller noticed lhat the body of tbc cheque ifas filled in in n boyish handwriting. That was unusual, and he took it to be particularly significant that a palpably nervous youth, holding a girl s hand, should present such a cheque. He held it up for a moment while he telephonel the firm. The manager rushed to the bank post-haste, arid the girl left as soon as he appeared. She was caught and held by a traffic policeman. The youth was still there when a detective arrived, and he confessed that their intention was to get married and take a trip on the £3lO if the scheme had come Jo fruition. AX ABDUCTION CHARGE. Customs .officers and police combined to spoil the second romance, as a result of which a married man is held on a charge of abduction, and a girl not half his ago is charged with vagrancy. Tlio story opened a fortnight ago, when a girl of eighteen presented a •single picket to Vancouver, ami asked for a passport to travel by the Aorangi. Customs officers pointed out that she would not be allowed to land in America unless she had a return ticket. She soon returned with that, and in reply to questions said that her lather was dead, her mother lived in Melbourne, and she was travelling on a visit to an American uncle, a clergyman. The passport was issued. But the night before the Aorangi was to sail the Customs men were telephoned anonymously and told that a man named was leaving for America by the vessel 411 company with a girl ho was abducting. They immediately realised that the only girl must be the one who was travelling to sec her “ uncle.” They pub the matter in police hands. Neither the man nor the girl had given their correct home addresses, and, with only hours to work in, the police failed to trace them. But they kept the boat under surveillance, ami assured themselves that neither sailed. As a matter of fact they obtained a rebate of their passage money within ten minutes of the boat's departure.

A fortnight; elapsed before detectives could get into touch with the man, and even then they had no knowledge where the girl was staying. They questioned the man about Ids passport, and, thinking doubtless that his innocent explanation of why he did not sail was all they wanted, he led them to a flat, where they found the girl installed, living, they claim, as his wife. At the detective office she created a dramatic scene, claiming in the face of definite information that ho was married and already had a family, that she loved him, and would stick to him no matter what transpired. Her attitude was such, in fact, that to ensure her attendance as a witness in the case, the police were compelled to charge her wifh vagrancy. The man was charged with abduction. He told the police that he went to the Aorangi, saw a number of police about the wharf, became scared, and bolted with the girl. He laces also a. charge of wife desertion, his wife claiming that lie has not supported her or their family for many months past. „