FELT MELANCHOLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 9

FELT MELANCHOLY.

BAKER CONVERTS CAR

CONFESSION TO FARMER

SHORT SENTENCE IMPOSED

Feeling in a melancholy mood last 'evening, Walter Bernard Johnson, aged 25, hakef and labourer, took a motor car 'from the city and drove out to Kumeu, where he confessed to a farmer that he had unlawfully converted it. He asked the farmer to call the police. His arrest followed. This morning, when he appeared before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., Johnson pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully converting to his own use a motor car valued at £45, belonging to Norman Hodder Stone. Sub-Inspector Fox said the owner of the car left it parked in Little Queen Street at 5.5 p.m. yesterday, and on going to get it at 10.25 p.m. he found that it had disappeared. "At 7.30 p.m. Johnson called on a farmer, Mr. Chitty, at Kumeu, having lost his way," added Mr. Fox. "He told Mr. Chitty he had unlawfully converted the car and asked him to communicate with the police. Constable Pollard, of Henderson, was summoned, and found the car on Anderson's , Deviation. Johnson arrived in Auckland from Sydney by the Wanganella on March 25, and obtained work in a Newmarket bakery, where he remained for a month. Since then he has been working at various labouring jobs." In a statement he made to the police Johnson said that after tea last night he was feeling very melancholy owing to insecure employment, and took the_ motor car. He had had three drinks yesterday, but was not drunk when he took the car. Sub-Inspector Fox added that when arrested Johnson was quite sober. The car he converted was in no way damaged. Johnson had never been in trouble previously. Asked by the magistrate if he had anything to say, Johnson replied that he was very sorry for what he had done, and that he had taken the car on the spur of the moment. "Quite a lot of people feel sorry when they stand in the dock, you know," the magistrate told Johnson. "I* cannot understand why you left Sydney when you were working in your father's bakery ■?" "I just got tired of the life and wanted to come over this side," he replied. "The offence of running away with other people's motor cars caii only be checked by imprisonment," Mr. Wilson said, as he sentenced Johnson to one week. On a charge of driving without a license Johnson was fined £1.