Two Years' Probation for Woman Shoplifter

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 758, 3 September 1929, Page 1

Two Years' Probation for Woman Shoplifter

LOOT WORTH £45 STOLE IN LUNCH HOURS ; Earning £2 a week in a cake- I shop, Dorothy Blade spent her lunch hours pilfering from city [ stores. When arrested, she was ' found to have goods valued at \ £45 in her room. She was admitted j to probation for two years at the j Police Court this morning, a con- I dition of the sentence being that S she spends the first year in the i Salvation Army home. Blade, a domestic, aged 23, pleaded guilty on five charges of theft from city drapery stores. The goods she had taken included clothing, gloves, cutlery, metal vases, and a quilt, and the offences were committed between ! March and August. “Blade is a single woman,” said | Chief-Detective Hammond. “We don’t know whether she has any relatives in New Zealand, as she won’t say. She has been; employed in a cakeshop, but for the. past three months has been in the-.habit of visiting! drapers’ shops during her, lunch-hour, ! particularly on half-price and sale days, j when she helps herself. She lives In : a room, where we found this stuff that I she now admits stealing. The chief- j detective added that the girl was j caught coming out of a shop on i Karangahape Road. Asked for a report on the girl, Major Annie Gordon, probation officer, said that she had a good character. She never visited pictures or dance halls, and had never been out of work. Her earnings were about £2 a week, and her moral character was also excellent. The girl was too old for the Boi-stal Institute, so the major suggested a term of probation, with 12 months in the army home. The Chief-Detective: I think she is deserving of a chance. This is her first offence. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., imposed the suggested.