SCHOOL CHILDREN ROBBED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2564, 7 April 1923, Page 4

SCHOOL CHILDREN ROBBED.

REMARKABLE STORIES,

MELBOURNE WOMEN THIEVES.

School children are being robbed of trinkets, bangles, brooches and other valuables by women who meet them in the streets, says a Melbourne paper. Four separate cases were reported to the detectives one day recently When agitated mothers, accompanied by their children related the amazing details of the peculiar crimes.

Ivy and Edna Morehouse, two very young girls were walking to i their home when they met a young woman of thin build. The offender stopped the children and after a casual conversation asked thegirls to accompany her down the street. When all pedestrians were out of sight, the young woman proceeded to take from the girls a gold bracelet and a brown velour coat with sealskin collar and cuffs. She asked the girls to wait a few minutes. The children waited much longer, but the woman did not return. Next on the list was the case of Edna Dibble, a school girl, who lost a leather case. According to the child, the woman said: “Lend me your case. I want to buy something for the baby. I’ll buy you a doll and your girl-mate a teddy bear.” She then took the case. She also made an attempt to take a bangle from the girl’s arm, but the child stepped back and threatened to run away. The woman disappeared down a. side street.

About lime Dorothy Holmes, eight years, was walking down Cambridge Street, Collingwood, when a girl about 1(1 years of age stopped her and took her velour coat saying that she had been sent by the mother of Dorothy to obtain it, and that she was to bring her back a sleeping doll. The girl took the child to the reserve in Victoria Parade and asked her to wait there till she returned. Like all the other girls, Dorothy had a long wait for nothing. Last on the detective list is the name of May McCoy. She was stopped by a girl about 17 or 18 years of age. The child lost, a gold bangle, the girl taking it from her arm.