PAYROLL ROBBERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 912, 4 March 1930, Page 16

PAYROLL ROBBERY

THEFT FROM LOCOMOTIVE IN BUSH VAGRANT ADMITS GUILT Press Association INVERCARGILL, Monday. A sensational development occurred today in the case of the dramatic robbery at Longwood a fortnight ago, when a bag containing the payroll for tho employees of the sawmill, amounting to over £IOO, was stolen from a locomotive. Timothy Edward Cosgrave, aged 47, appeared in the Riverton Police Court, and admitted responsibility for the theft. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Cosgrave was arrested at the Round Hill Hotel two days after the robbery, and was remanded twice in Invercargill on a charge of being an idle and disorderly person. Cosgrave also pleaded guilty to a charge of theft from a store at Pahia last December. It was stated by the police that accused had volunteered to make a statement to clear up the whole matter. In this statement accused said that on the day of the Longwood robbery he had been lying in the grass near a gravel pit (where the train stopped), as he had an idea that the payroll would be on the train. While the backs of the driver and fireman were turned, he crept up to the engine and looked round, but saw nothing. He crept away again. Later, remembering that he saw an old bag hanging inside the cab. he returned surreptitiously, and, finding the bag locked, he removed it. Back at his camp he cut the bag open and removed some of the money. It was stated by the police that all the money had been recovered except £47. Goods in hand which the accused had bought reduced the shortage to £3l.