POLICEMAN’S ERROR

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1931, Page 3

POLICEMAN’S ERROR

ARREST OF MAGISTRATE. COMMOTION IN PARIS. Great commotion arose suddenly a few weeks ago in an important Paris boulevard. At the window of a secondfloor fiat a little girl shrieked, “Help! Help I They are murdering my mother I” Within a minute or two a sergeant and two constables, revolvers ready, forced their way through the gathering crowd, ran up the stairs, and burst into a room from which came a woman’s agonised sobs. Near the woman stood two men—one young and' elegant, the other elderly and wearing the Legion of Honour. With a lightning-like movement one of the officers slipped the handcuffs over the wrists of the young man. His companion protested vigorously, but the sergeant, accustomed to such outbursts, proceeded imperturbably with the execution of Ins duty. “-I am At. Pachot, the magistrate,” said the decorated gentleman, when the sergeant insisted on a move being made to the police station. It was indeed M, Pachot, who, ac-

companied by his secretary, had gone to the flat to ask certain questions of the occupant. Monsieur was not at home, and madame jumped to the conclusion tliat the visitors were criminals, and sent- her little-' daughter to cry for help. The sergeant was .profuse in h s apologies, but the magistrate complimented him. on his professional zeal.