STRANGE STORY

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3638, 14 May 1927, Page 3

STRANGE STORY

thief’s Wanderings. Dunedin, This Day. Arthur George Renney, who appeared at the Police Court this morning on 24 charges of breaking and entering and theft, told an astonishing story of his wanderings between Evansdale and Dunedin during the last four months. In his signed statement he said that the incentive for breaking into various dwellings and cribs, was mainly hunger. Invariably his stay in unoccupied cribs was marked by much feasting. Rarely did he hinder himself with anything not usefu] to his wanderings. On onb occasion, after breaking into a crib at St. Leonard’s and boarding himself gratis for two days, lie embarked in an old row boat. He had rather a perilous three-hour voyage in the leaky tub to Broad Bay. He continued his wanderings and depredations among the East Harbour cribs. Sometimes he was without food for days, and he slept among the lupins. Some weeks ago he bethought himself of the good things stored in Neill’s bond in the city and made an entry. There he lived heartily on tinned foods and champagne, etc., hiding by day among the rafters. Often during his lonely wanderings he sat in the scrub above Ravensbourne, watching his former home, where his iwif&and baby lived. The child was born after he had left home for the hills, and one of his first questions after arrest was: “Is it a boy or a girl?” Renney pleaded guilty to all charges and was committed for sentence.