GAOL FOR THEFT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 47, 25 February 1939, Page 11

GAOL FOR THEFT

GOLD WATCH AND CHAIN TAKEN A WANGANUI CASE Theft of a gold watch and chain was admitted by Arnold Arnie Hastie, labourer, aged 30, in the Wanganui Police Court yesterday. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M. The goods were valued at £2O. On a charge of vagrancy and theft of a razor and shaving brush at Kai Iwi, on February 11, valued at £3, Hastie was convicted and discharged. Detective-Sergeant J. K. Robertson, who conducted the case for the police, said that Hastie came to Wanganui about Christmas time. He stayed at a boardinghouse in Wanganui and left without paying. He was next heard of in Westmere and Brunswick districts where complaints were received from farmers of thefts from meat safes. During this time the theft of the watch and chain took place in Wanganui.

Police inquiries led to Hastie being found by Constable F. W. Edwards after the Kai Iwi theft. When arrested he was in a neglected state and appeared to be in a rather weak mental condition, but Detective-Ser-geant Robertson suggested that this might be caused by the class of life he had been leading, as he was very rarely seen during the day time. If sent to Wellington he would receive treatment there.