BURGLARLY AT ALTON.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9152, 22 May 1908, Page 7

BURGLARLY AT ALTON.

The peaceful serenity which envelopes Alton was disturbed on i Monday when the news spread that a robbery had been committed at the Alton Hotel. It appears that on Monday afternoon a stranger arrived at the hotel and engaged a room. He was quietly dressed and of respectable appearance. He stayed in the hotel and in the course of conversation remarked that he was a tourist and was visiting Alton for the benefit of|his health. During the afternoon Mr Wimsett, the licensee of the hotel, had occasion to leave the premises, and during his absence the stranger was noticed coming from the passage leading to Mr Wimsett’s bedroom. Mrs Wimsett, who had become suspicious, shortly afterwards went to the room “and opening a purse which was placed under the pillow of the bed found that £lB, one ten pound note, one five pound note, and three sovereigns had been abstracted. The curious part is that there was over £SO in the purse but only £lB had been taken. Mrs Wimaett taxed the stranger with having committed the robbery but he strenuously and indignantly denied the charge. Mr Wimsett came into Patea and informed Constable O’Brien of the occurrence. Constable O’Brien drove out to Alton and arrested the suspected man at the hotel. On searching him three sovereigns and three shillings were found but no trace of any notes. The accused, who gave his name as Edward James King, was brought to Patea. Prior to his arrest, Mr Wimsett noticed King walk down the road and go up to a gorse hedge. On Wednesday morning Mr Wimsett instituted a search and the missing notes were discovered in the hedge. On Wednesday afternoon Edward James King was charged before Mr J. A. McKenna, J.P., with having stolen £lB, the property of Mr O. Wimsett, of Alton, and on the application of the police was remanded for a week. —Patea Press.