Stole Camera from Their Good Samaritan

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 23, 28 January 1937, Page 9

Stole Camera from Their Good Samaritan

GIRLS’ BRIEF ESCAPADE ENDS IN COURT

Two girls who left their homes at Lower Hutt at six o'clock on Monday evening to walk "to destination unknown," were picked up by a service car driver at Grey town in the early hours of the morning and rewarded him by stealing a camera from his car, appeared bofore Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Palmerston North yesterday. They were Freda Florence Young, alias Beaumont, factory hand, of Lower Hutt, aged 17, and Melva Smith, domestic, of Lower Hutt, aged 19 years. Jointly charged, they pleaded guilty to stealing a camera, valued at 355, from Leslie Duncan at Pahiatua on Tuesday. Arrest at Waipukurau

Senior-Sergeant Mclntyre said the girls, after leaving their homos on Monday evening, walked through the night and at 4 a.m. were given a ride by a service car driver who overtook them at four o'clock the next morning. After they alighted at Woodville, ho discovered that the camera was missing. Communication with tho police resulted in the girls being intercepted at Waipukurau, and although they strenuously denied knowledge of the camera, it was found secreted in a bundle of thin clothing. They wero charged before justices of tho peace and remanded to Palmerston North. They told the police in Waipukurau that they intended joining a side show in that town. The Wellington police, said Mr McIntyre, had been advised of tho girls' disappearance by their mothers, who reported their daughters to bo beyond discipline. Young's mother suggested she bo placed for twelve months in the care of the child welfare officer, while Mrs Smith thought her daughter might be "straightened up" by twelve months in a receiving home. The parents had offered the rail fare to have their daughters returned home. Conditional on their returning home, tho Magistrate placed both girls in the care of tho child welfare officer for twelve months.