HARD-UP AND HUNGRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 591, 18 February 1929, Page 12

HARD-UP AND HUNGRY

EXCUSE FOR STEALING COUNTRY STORE BROKEN INTO Finding themselves, to use their own term, “hard-up and hungry,” two men who have been tramping the Auckland roads, broke into a store at Ohinewai about a month ago. They admitted their guilt at the Police Court this morning. Jack Warren Montgomery, an American painter, aged 23, and Percy Alexander Lyes, a fireman, aged 28, were charged with breaking and entering a store at Ohinewai on January 26, and stealing goods valued at £l2 13s. Acting-Detective Kemp said that he had been sent down to investigate the theft and had interviewed Montgomery and Eyes at Te Kauwliata. It was not until afterward that the stolen goods were found hidden in the teatree scrub and the men were arrested by Detective-Sergeant McHugh in Auckland. The two men had then made frank statements expressing their intention of pleading guilty and asking that no unnecessary witnesses be called.

Pleas of guilty were entered by both men who were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Montgomery and Eyes were also to be sentenced on a charge of converting to their own use at Kaukapakapa a car valued at £350. Chief-Detective Hammond observed that it was fortunate that the men had been unable to start the car and had to abandon it a few yards from the garage. Had the men succeeded in getting the engine running, the car would probably have been at the other end of the province. Sentence on this charge was deferred until the men had been dealt with by the Supreme Court. Sentence was also held over on a charge of breaking the terms of his release on probation to which Montgomery pleaded guilty. It was men tioned that Montgomery had been admitted to probation at Christchurch under the name of Moncrieff.