JEWELLERS RAIDED.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1916, Page 6

JEWELLERS RAIDED.

BY LADY FROM THE COUXTKY. STI'AN'UK STOBY OF A TKAXCE. That people who jump to conclusions on appearances are sometimes rushed into unjustiiied interference is well exemplified by the outcome of a scene that caused a considerable amount of excitement- at the Auckland railway station on Wednesday evening. A man nas seen to be' in warm argument with a girl on the platform of one of the carriages, and just as the train was moving off he caught hold of the handle of her handbag. She snatched it away and pushed the man, who fell between the carriages ; vith the broken handle of the handbag in his right hand, and very narrowly escaped being run over as he scrambled back to the station platform. Chivalrous young men on the train—she was a rather good-looking young lajly—hastened to express to the girl their opinions of what they considered a dastardly attack on her jewels, and offered assistance in getting the police to apprehend the offender; The'guard of the train was spoken to, and the train was delayed at Newmarket with a view to having the police fully informed, but the young lady steadily protested against any publicity being'given to the matter, as she could not face the shame of appearing publicly as a prosecutor, though she agreed that the attempt on her valuables was a shameful proceeding.

A FANCY FOR TRINKETS. - The explanation of the matter, however, puts a totally different complexion oil the matter, and points to wbat at this stage looks like a bare-faced raid 011 Auckland jewellery shops by a girl from the country. On Wednesday afternoon a young lady went into Mr. Hugh Black's jewellery shop in Queen street and bought two salt spoons for a shilling. She then asked to see some gold watches, and was shown a number of t'hem, but did not appear to take a violent fancy to any, and enquired about some wristlet watches, which Mr. Black had, to go to the window for. One of thwc seemed to be. about the thing, and the young girl asked that it be put aside for lier, remarking that she and her mother would call probably next day and get it. She then left, and just afterwards Mr Black found that a gold watch, valued at £7, was missing, and he at once informed the police. That same afternoon a young lady called at Mr. David Silk's shop, bought some smelling salts And looked over some pendants, but did not find any of the trinkets to suit her, and left the shop while Mr. Silk was engaged with some other customers. .Tust after her departure Mr. Sill; discovered that two or three of the valuable pendants were gone also. Also on Wednesday afternoon a young lady made a trifling purchase at Davidson and Co.'s shop, Strand Arcade, and after her departure i gold bangle, valued at £2, was missed. THE GIRL IN THE TRAIN. The only person who had any real clue to the perpetrator of the thefts was Mr. Silk, to whom, in course of conversation, the young lady bad mentioned that she was going back to Papakura l)y the 5,45 p.m. train. Mr. Silk consequently made for that train, and he recognised his lady visitor on one of the carriage platforms. He accosted her, and demanded the return of the pendants. After some argument she handed over two pendants, but Mr. Silk had an impression that there were more than that to come, and demanded that she should show him what she had in the handbag. She refused, and he caught hold of the handle of the bag just as the train wrs starting, but was pushed away, and stumbled in the manner stated above, while the girl went off in the train in company with the aforesaid indignant male spectators, who hastened to console with beauty in distress.

YOUXfi LADY ARRESTED. A third stage in the matter was readied when Detective Powell and Constable Waugh, after enquiries around Papakura, yesterday went on to Drurv, and. there arrested a good-looking ycung lady named Anna Eliza Steen, on charges of the thefts from Messrs Black's, Silk's and Davidson's, and they recovered from her the gold watch, the bangle anil two pendants. A VIVID DREAM. Strangely enough, the police officers seem to have been rather fortunate in having been delayed in their enquiries, for it is stated that until yesterday afternoon the jewellery had been "planted.'' The story told about its being brought to light is that yesterday morning the young lady told her fiancee' that she had had a particularly vivid dream, in which she saw some jewellery in a secret place under a little bridge on the road between Papakura and 'Drurv. .The (beam impressed her so much that when the pair wont out driving that day and came to the bridge, she looked under the bridge, just to verify the dream, and there, sure enough, she found 'the jewellery, which was afterwards claimed by the detective as the property o; (he Auckland jewellers.

COUNSEL'S EXPLANATION. When the girl was brought before Mr. E. C. Cntten, S.M., on Friday, Mr. Simpson, who appeared for the accused, stated that the case was a most peculiar and mi fortunate one. as at the time of the thefts she was in a very weak and low state of mind in consequence of a habit of indulging in trances. She used to work herself into the condition called a trance, and then fort*?] 1 events for the cufertainmcnt'of friends. It was really a kind of gift, or peculiar constitution, she possessed, and in one of these remarkable exhibitions she told some friends, who had encouraged her in that kind of thing, that a passenger on board of a ship coming to Auckland had had her jewellery stolen by a sailor, and that she saw the sailor, after hp landed here, put the jewellery in a box and hide the box under a certain bridge near Papakura. ' She was told of this prophecy when she eame out of the trance, and. wishing to make good the prophecy, she stole the jewellery, put it in a box and put it under the bridge. It was the foolish act of a girl who was very young and in a low physical and mental condition, due to self-induced fainting turns. Previously she had 'been of unblemished i character, and 'her home and parents were respectable. She had plenty of jewellery of her own, and was in comfortable circumstances, so that there was nothing to influence the theft except the foolish elairvoyancy.

Chief Detective McMahon said that if the girl were subject to these trances mentioned by counsel, it would be well to have her for a time under some restraint outsids he: hom»-

His Worship: I just had that thought in mind. It is not a proper tiling- to send a young girl of tins kind to gaol, but 1 think that who should ho for a time under some form of restraint.

Jlr. Simpson remarked that until this ease occurred the girl's father was unaware of these I ranees, which were worked when the girl - was "from lior home, among young .friends. Now, lie could keep an'eye on her to cheek any further sueli doings.

After some consideration, his Worship convicted the girl and remanded her for a week for sentence, pending enquiries hv the Probation Qflicev, the girl to be allowed to stay at home in the meantime.