ROBBED A MACHINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 12

ROBBED A MACHINE.

LEAD " PENNIES" USED. YOUTHS ADMIT GUILT. Two youths who robbed an automatic chocolate vendor by dropping pieces of lead, shaped like pennies, into the aperture of the machine, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft, when they appeared in the Children's Court to-day.

Mr. Fraer, who represented the lads, entered a plea of guilty. While the boys had regarded their manipulation of the machine as something rather clever, they were not impressed with the seriousness of their offence. Both came from respectable homes. One boy had been in trouble before, but the Court might overlook it, since he had done nothing more than to steal some food from a bach, when stranded and hungry on Ranpritoto.

A police sergeant stated that a suburban shopkeeper had been finding circular pieces of lead in his chocolate machine for the past twelve months. Rpcentlv. at 11 o'clock one night, he heard the constant clicking of the machine as it issued cakes of chocolate, and on going out to the front of his premises saw the two accused on bicycles. He asked them if the machine was working properly, and one youth replied, "Why? Have you woke up?" Next morning the shopkeeper opened the machine. Tn it he found fifteen pieces of lead. He had also found a penny attached to a wire, and this had apparently been used in obtaining chocolate without payment. The lads were admonished and discharged. it being decided that thev should make good the sum of 6/5, the value of the chocolate obtained.