A LADY BURGLAR.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 154, 10 February 1903, Page 5

A LADY BURGLAR.

Mrs Kate Porter, a fashionably dressed woman, who was arrested at Melbourne last week, has demonstrated that mere man has no longer a right to the monopoly'of burglary. Complaints came- from several suburbs that a young lady on many occasions had been discovered in residences surrounded by displaced drawers, and in possession of hastily gathered valuables. On being discovered, the intruder, with a merry laugh, would exclaim, “Oh, what a fright I must have given you. I’m playing at being a .burglar, and it’s such fun. Is Mrs ’Brown in ? No, doesn’t live here ? Oh, dear me ! Dear me ! What a terrible mistake I have made. I thought this was her house, and she is such an old friend of the family. How* can I apologise for my intrusion ?” With that she would become greatly distressed, and the sympathies of the Household being aroused by the further confession that Mrs Brown’s baby was a special attraction for the intruder, and she had so wanted to give Mrs Brown a surprise, the enterprising young lady would be escorted to the front door, and bowed out by the somewhat bewildered householder. On one occasion Mrs Thompson, of Malvern, went into her front bedroom, and found a stylish and very well dressed young lady so surrounded with the contents of disordered drawers, and so busy picking out little valuables, that the fdrmei at once decided that the visitor was a thief. But to the surprise of her discoverer, the young lady in the most charming and straightforward manner, explained the matter. After a really merry laugh she demanded to be taken at once to Mrs Henderson, to see the deal baby. “I’m a clergyman’s daughter,” she said, “and Mrs Hendeison is our oldest fiiend. *Oh, take me at once to her ; I’m dying see her. She will indeed be surpris-

Mrs Thompson was puzzled, and answered that Mrs Henderson did not live there. The lady burglar collapsed, but after a time, came round sufficiently to inform Mrs Thompson what a dreadful mistake she had made. As a guarantee of good faith, she took off about a dozen articles of jewellery she was wearing, a nd said she would leave them with Mrs Thompson as security, that she would return the following day and establish her bona fides. She hurried awav, but never returned. On the 28th ult. Sirs Porter, who

said she was a married woman, 28 years of age, was arrested in the city on two charges of larceny, and several suburban residents called at the watchhouse and identified, her as the young lady who had visited them uninvited, and been found on their premises under the circumstances indicated.

A cab.e message from Melbourne, states that Mrs Porter has been committed for trial on a charge of housebreaking, and on a second charge of stealing from a dwelling.