BARMAN-DETECTIVE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 711, 10 July 1929, Page 1

BARMAN-DETECTIVE

SUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR STOLEN SHOES “CONTEMPTIBLE THEFT” Persistent efforts made yesterday by Albert Charles Simpson to recover a pair of shoes which had been stolen earlier in the day resulted in the arrest of Ernest Walton at noon. rpHE story of how Simpson recovered the missing shoes was told in the Police Court this morning after Walton, aged 36, pleaded not guilty to a charge of stealing a pair of shoes valued at 30s. Simpson, a barman at an hotel in Newmarket, said he missed his shoes from the changing room and set out intent on their recovery. First he had informed the police, and then visited a second-hand dealer, where he ascertained that a man had endeavoured to sell a pair of shoes only a short time before. • “l then went" to another hotel in Newmarket,” continued witness. “I took the barman on one side and asked him whether anyone had been trying to sell a pair of shoes.” The barman had told witness that accused, who was then in the bar, had tried to sell a pair of shoes. “I accused him of stealing the shoes, and he denied it,” added Simpson. Charles Herbert Wood, the barman alluded to by the previous witness, identified Walton as the man who had tried to sell a pair of shoes in his bar yesterday. He had accosted witness and a stranger in the bar asking 5s for the shoes. “Just an ordinary petty contemptible theft,” observed Sub-Inspector Me Carthy. Walton’s story that he had bought the shoes in Whangarei was not believed by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., who asked for accused’s list, which was said by the sub-inspector to he a fairly good one. Sentence of one month’s imprisonment was imposed.