“UNCLE” BOUGHT HIS OWN BAG!

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 37, 6 May 1927, Page 1

“UNCLE” BOUGHT HIS OWN BAG!

AUDACIOUS THEFT FROM PAWNBROKERONE MONTH’S GAOL A really live man in the selling business may be able to sell ice-cream to Eskimos, or coconuts to kanakas, but the fellow who can “lift” a bag from outside a pawnbroker’s shop and then go in and sell “Uncle” his own bag back again, is indeed a super-sales-man!

When Duncan Johnstone, the man who accomplished this feat, comes out of Mount Eden a month hence, he will no doubt find a queue of prospective employers falling over each other to secure his services.

Having established this selling record last Tuesday Johnstone strolled out of the pawnshop without any visible traces of emotion, walked on to the next sign of the three gold balls, quietly picked up a second bag, took it on to a third pawnshop, and sold it, too.

A third bag, from the same pawnshop, he tried to palm off on the

“Uncle” to whom he had sold the first one, but the astute Israelite was not to be caught napping a second time. In the Police Court this morning, Senior-Detective Hammond described Johnstone’s achievement as “rather audacious.” This was the first time that he had been brought up for theft. “I was only a fool to do a thing like that,” said the super-salesman from the dock, apparently ashamed of his achievement.

“Of course, you were a fool,” agreed Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M. “You're sentenced to a month’s imprisonment!”