QUICK LUGGAGE REMOVAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 26, 31 January 1921, Page 2

QUICK LUGGAGE REMOVAL.

! " I A portmanteau that was spirited away from the side door of the Clarendon | Hotel on Friday week while the owner of I the luggage was m the bar with a friend I engaged in the popular pastime of ; "knocking one back,"' *as the basis of a 1 charge of theft against a big, able-bodied man named Duncan Kleeber (40), before Mr. J. W. Poynton. S.M.. to-day. Che owner of the luggage, Wm. John Smith, a bushman from Taumarunui, related that having put his handbag down inside the private entrance doorway of the hotel he went into the bar, had a drink with a friend, and returned to find the bag gone. Some time later the bag and contents were found in a second-hand shop just across the street from the ; hotel, and the dealer. P. W. Fischer. identified Kleeber as the man who had sold him the goods. As a matter of fact. Fischer had gone to the Police Station and picked Kleeber out unhesitatingly from among seven others as being the vendor of the stolen handbag, who had given the name of "Thompson" at the time of the sale. Kleeber maintained his innocence, and when the ' evidence had been given he pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial.