BIG MONEY FOR SMALL THEFTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 22 October 1926, Page 8

BIG MONEY FOR SMALL THEFTS.

THIEVES RAID PUBLIC

'PHONES. v

MAKING £30 A WttttK.

(From Oar Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, October 15.

How email thieving can produce big j returns was revealed in a case heard at the Central Police Court, Sydney, this week, when two men were charged with stealing from the Postmaster-General. It was pointed out by a postal officer that from September 1 to October 5, when the men were arrested, 124 telephone bureaux had been broken open both at the Central Railway Station and Circular Quay, the takings, averaging about £1 in each case, being stolen. Both men, when arrested, had. many copper coins in their possession, while a search of their room by the police led to the discovery of 168 pennies hidden in a drawer. Their operations netted them about £30 a week, and in addition to the bureaux they broke open at the Central Railway Station and Circular Quay, they admitted to having stolen the contents of. the receptacles in public telephone boxes at Manly, Burwood, Petersham, Strathfield, .Ashfield, Summer Hill, Stanmore, Punchbowl, Belmore, Lakemba, Campsie and Canterbury. Knives and spanners, which they used to prize open the coin receptables, were found in their room.

On nine charges heard so far they have received sentences totalling nine months' imprisonment.