GETTING EVEN

NZ Truth, Issue 1185, 16 August 1928, Page 9

GETTING EVEN

Hat For Hat Theory Ddesn t Pay

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Taupiri Rep.)

The old biblical law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth : does not possess two disciples m Leon and Roy Healey, one of Kingsland and the other of Pon- ! sonby, Auckland. When one of them lost his hat at a dance at Horotiu, they determined on a joint revenge. THIS took the form, not merely of stealing a hat m return! but m getting down on no fewer than six headpieces and four overcoats. Although there is only a gap of two years between, them, Leon and Roy are uncle and nephew, Leon being 21 and Roy 19. For some time they have been touring South Auckland, hawking hardware. On the night before, when the English League team visited Taupiri, the pair attended a dance at Horotiu. There it was that somebody got down on Roy's hat. - The next night, Taupirians held a dance at the local hall. But Leon and Roy were there, not so much with the idea of dancing as with what they termed "getting their own back" for the stolen hat. They attended the function minus their hats and overcoats. After a few dances they calmly entered the dress-ing-room and a few moments later each emerged, clothed in.hat and overcoat. . . r . . BALANCING UP ' The whole process was so very simple that they decided to repeat' it. Hatless and coatless, thfy strolled casually back to the hall again a few minutes later, as though they had just been out for a smoke* and breath of air. When the coast was clear, they again slipped into the dressing-room and once more walked quietly out m the hats and coats that did not belong to them. ' Their greed got a little the better of them, however. They were not content with merely two hats and two coats each, but they stuck an additional hat under each coat before leaving on the second occasion. Of course this wholesale disappearance of clothing was the cause of not a little confusion after the ball was over, -and minds began to cast round for the perpetrators of the raid. Some suspected the Healeys, and next day the pair were" interrogated by a policeman at Ngaruawahia, where the stolen property was found m their possession. „ They admitted their misdeed m a written statement to the police. When they appeared before F.< W. Platts, S.M., at Hamilton last week, both youths pleaded guilty. Roy's chief concern m the dock seemed to be the publication- of his name. He said somebody stole his hat at Horotiu, and he was determined to "get one back for, it." Everybody, he said, was stealing each other's clothes at these dances. . The magistrate took a lenient view of the case, especially as both lads had comparatively clean records. He did not think it ,would be m their interests to send them to- gaol, and he fined Leon £5 and Roy £3 and costs. A request for the suppression of their names was not granted.