SNEAK THIEVES BUSY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 28, 2 February 1928, Page 8

SNEAK THIEVES BUSY.

AT BEACHES AHD BATHS.

MONEY AND CLOTHING STOLEN.

To emerge from the water after enjoying all the delights of a bathe at one of the beaches or swimming baths, only to find your wardrobe, or portion of it, together with money, has disappeared, is the sort of thing to make one swear off, or at beaches and public baths. Yet this is the experience of not a few of those, mostly young women, who have taken full advantage of the summer months and freely indulged in a plunire in the water.

Sneak thieves have been particularly busy this swimming season, and many a young woman has had elotliinc stolen, in most instances the thieves being content to take stockings. But there have been instances where shoes, hats, and other articles of apparel have taken the fancy of thieves, and the victims have had to borrow cloaks to go home in. The rifling of pockets is very common, and innumerable bathers have discovered that while thev enjoved themselves in the water, the'dressing rooms had been visited and money removed from the pockets of the clothing. A few days ago tl»e custodian at the Pamell Baths found in one of the dressing rooms a number of purses which had been emptied of their contents and then thrown in a corner. At Shellv Beach. Ponsonby, Cheltenham, in fact, at all public bathing places, the work of thieves has been reported, but most of the thefts have taken place at Parnell and Ponsonbv.

At the beaches it is not easy to enjoy a dip in the sea and watch one's clothing at the same time, but those who have been relieved of money at the public baths have only themselves to blame as notices are prominently displayed warning bathers that they leave their belong inps about at their own risk, and that articles can be left with the custodian.

But while the sneak thieves have been busy, so also have the police, nnd in the next day or two more than one alleged thief will be prosecuted.