SMART ARREST

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 52, 23 October 1931, Page 3

SMART ARREST

PROWLER ARRESTED CONSTABLE APPREHENDS MAN TEN MINUTES AFTER HOUSE BURGLED EARLY MORNING CAPTURE. When Ernest Albert Cooper, a railway clerk of Yictoria St., arrived at the Rotoroa Police yesterday morning to report that his house had been rifled by a cat burglar during the night, he found that a man had been arrested ten minutes after the burglary, had ntade a statement admitting the theft, and was already in the lock-up. A smart arrest by Constable Kelly was responsible for this up-to-the-minute police work. On the beat, just before three o'clock this morning, the constable had just visited the railway station when as he returned he noticed a man fiattening himself against a telegraph pole in an obvious endeavoux to make himself inconspicuous. Suspicious of this behaviour, the constable used his torch to find that the man was wearing double socks on his hands, and that he had his stocking feet loosely thrust into unlaeed shoes. The prowler was unable to satisfy the constable of his reasons for being abroad at that hour, and when he was taken to the police station, finally admitted that he had just left a house behind the railway station, where he had entered a room and rifled the pockets of a pair of trousers hanging on a door. Door Left Open. A sum of money was also found in his possession of the same amount as that which Mr. Cooper discovered to be missing from his trousers pockets, when he realised that his house had been entered. Apparently the back door of the residence had been left unlocked and ingress was gained by that means. Mr. Cooper heard no sound until he was awalcened by another occupant ' of the house, who, returning at a j late hour, discovered that the back ! door was open. Investigations then showed that a sum of approximately 19 s in small change had been stolen from clothing in the bedroom. Half an hour before Mr. Cooper made this discovery, however, the constable had effected his arrest^ and lodged the man in the lock-up. Apparently the intruder, after leaving Mr. Cooper's house, came along the track through the railway plantation. He had just emerged on to Amohau Street when he was accosted by the constable. Folowing the arrest, a Moari labourer named Tuhina Matahe, a reeent arrival in Rotorua, was brought ! before Mr. A. W.. Downer, J.P., in I the" Rotorua -Magistrate's Court, and I remanded on a charge of breaking •and entering the house of Benjamin I Alfred Brothers on October 21 and 1 stealing a purse eontaining foreign j coin and 30s in money. This last charge is in relation to ! the entry of Mr. Brothers' house in ; Whaka Road as reported in yester- | days' issue. I Matere has been remanded to ap- ! pear before the magistrate on MonS day, October 27, the police stating | that other charges are pending.