A TOBACCO ROBBERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 74, 29 March 1899, Page 5

A TOBACCO ROBBERY.

A1 the Police Court to-day a young fellow named John Dunn was charged with stealing £10 8/.T worth of tobacco belonging to John Bertie, and also twelve sticks of tobacco, value 9/, the property of some person unknown.

The second charge was taken first Dunno pleading not guilty.

.John Bertie, deposed to discovering at 7 a.m. onthe morning of the 23rd inst. that his tobacco shop had been broken into and the whole of the goods in the window stolen.

Const. A. McDonnell said he stopped the accused in Queen-street about 11.15 p.m. on the 24th and asked him what he had in the parcel under his left arm. Accused made no reply, but when the parcel was taken from him by the constable he said, 'It's only a bit of tobacco.' Asked where he got it, accused said he got it, from a shop in YVyndham-street, kept by a man named Forbes. The constable took him to'the Police Station, where accused named several other persons as having given him portions of the tobacco. On the previous night Bertie's shop in Queen-street had been broken into and a quantity of tobacco stolen, including sticks of 'Derby,' the same brand as that in Dunn's parcel. Witness made enquiries from two of the three people mentioned by Dunn as having given him the tobacco, ami both denied the truth of the statement. Dunn was an 'oyster-boy,' and witness had known him for about IS months. •

Dunn repeated his statement that he had bought some of the tobacco and that three men had given him the rest. lie asked for an opportunity to subpoena these as witnesses, and the case was accordingly adjourned for a week.