MAM CROUCHING BY BED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 7

MAM CROUCHING BY BED.

CGIOIGTION IN HOTEL. MAORI CHARGED WITH THEFT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) NEW PLYMOUTH, this (lav. Aroused in the early hours of the morning of March 5, Walter E. Reid, of •Upper Hutt, staying at the Criterion Hotel in New Plymouth, asked the porter who had opened the door. The porter had not opened it, but Reid knew he had shut the door upon retiring. He returned to bed without having switched on the light. Feeling uneasy, .he again got up, and this time switched on the light. He saw a man, hatless and bootless, crouching at the foot of the bed. The stranger said he was in the wrong room, but made no resistance when taken to the hotel office. While the porter sought the police the intruder rushed upstairs, and Reid pursued him in vain. Such was the story told in the Police Court by R.eid as a witness against Robert Harvey Campbell, a half-caste Maori, who is charged with having stolen from the clothing of Robert McMillan, a commercial traveller, who was also staying at the hotel, a wallet and contents valued at £130. Reid added thaf) the man who escaped was Campbell.

The hearing of the charge was not finished. Campbell is also charged with breaking and entering, forgery and false pretences.