SHOP THIEVE CAUGHT.

Otaki Mail, 3 April 1922, Page 1

SHOP THIEVE CAUGHT.

The display oi goods in Mr Cun mug's store at shannon lust Saturday night was so tempting that some person was tempted to take away iroin the door two blankets and six pairs of men’s hose, worth .eg (i . Mr Cunning did not object to the articles being taken. What lie objected to was not getting paid for them, so lie went and asked the opinion ol the police, and tlieir view was thatthe person who took the goods did not take them on approval nor would bring them back nor pay lor them unless drastic action was taken. The clue, or fact, tliai a cake oi soap worth a shilling was stolen from Mr joe Beard, of the Shannon Cash Trading Society, about the same time, did not help the police. As it turned out eventually, however, it was a clue, and on Monday, 27th inst., the police arrested two men. Robert Duke Monson, of Whitanui, was arrested for stealing the soap and other articles, and a man named Gerald Frank Newbury, a stranger to the town, was taken into custody for taking tiic goods lrom Monson, well knowing That they were stolen.

On the Tuesday morning, both men were brought before Messrs. Spencer and Murdoch. Justices, at Shannon. Monson admitted, after evidence was called, that he took the goods aforementioned. and that he was foolish irt doing so, as he did not want them for himself, and only gave them to Newbury through sheer generosity and goodness of heart. Newbury said he knew the goods were stolen, but took them because Monson gave them to him

The .Justices were ox the opinion that the man who received the goods was as bad as the man who stole them, and fined the men £4 each and costs, or a month each for due reflection in Wellington Gaul.