SHOPLIFTING DEVICE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5235, 6 February 1928, Page 3

SHOPLIFTING DEVICE.

INGENIOUS CONTRIVANCE.

BOX DONE UP AS PARCEL. Detectives at Sydney police headquarters were amazed recently at the ingenuity and simplicity of a device, contrived for the concealment of goods stolen from city shops, which was found in the possession of a man who has been charged on, several counts of stealing. It consisted of a box, with a loose-fitting lid, carefully covered with a folded brown-paper Wrapping which was. pasted on to the two sections and surrounded by dummied strings. When closed the box was a. perfect representation of. an ordinary shopping parcel, carefully wrapped and tied. Several boxes of different sizes were found by the detectives at a house at The police state that the contrivance is a novel one so far as their experience goes. To a man carrying such a box under his arm, they state. it would be a simple matter to slip into it articles displayed in stores.

The Inventor ofthe contrivance was arrested orf a charge of having stolen frocks valued at £2O from a large city firm, The detectives were accompanied by the man later to the house at Abbotsford, where, it is alleged,

hundreds of pounds’ wdrth of valuable goods were found stacked openly on tables, shelves, and mantelpieces.

About £2OO worth of . the goods was recovered and taken tg police/ headquarters. .The detectives allege that an adnjission was made in regard to this property, but that difficulty Would be encounteired in establishing the origin of the remainder, which was left at the house. Several charges were laid with respect to the goods.

The arrested man is employed in the city- It is. alleged that the goods were stolen in his lunch hours, and taken to the house by another person who waited outside, the stores in a motor-car.