AN ESCAPED PRISONER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 142, 14 June 1912, Page 5

AN ESCAPED PRISONER.

AT LARGE IW ATTCKLAN3J. A CLcESVEK. GET-AWAY. A quiet and very deft escape from custody was perpetrated at the Auckland Police Court this morning by a young man named Charles John Brooks. •2o years of age- He was brought to the Court to answer a charge of having stolen from the s.s. Hauiti early this week a gold watch and' chain, valued at afoout £58. a-nd 25/ in money, Hβ was remanded to appear on Friday, and in due course -was filed out of the prisoner's room downstairs in company with four or fire other prisoners, ta march to the hurry-up wagon, which was standing at the gate a-bout twenty yards distant. Brooks apparently stepped quietly c«ft of line, and identified himself with the several members of the public who at the time were standing about the doorway and vestibule of the court, through ■wnich the prisoners had to file. The manoeuvre was so coolly and naturally done thai his absence was unnoticed at the moment, and it was not till the wagon reached the watchhouse in Princes-street that he was missed. It was a clean for the time being. Broots is quietly and inconspicuously dressed, which will u.ot assist in the recapture. There is against him, however, the fact that he is penniless.