STREET COLLECTOR’S THEFT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23191, 30 November 1940, Page 9

STREET COLLECTOR’S THEFT

— MONEY TAKEN FROM BOX (PRESS ASSOCIATIOH TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, November 29. Caught by the police in a trap prepared while she was collecting money in the streets on Friday last during the appeal tor the Fighting Forces Fund, Mrs Margaret Elizabeth McComb, of Dcvonport, appeared on summons in the Magistrate’s Court, and pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing £4 Cs belonging to the patriotic committee. Detective McEwen said that by arrangement, a number of marked coinswere placed in a collection box which the accused carried. At 11.30 he saw her walk from Customs street into Galway street. At the rear of the building she tipped the collection box upside down into a separate cardboard box and put something into her pocket. Early in the afternoon he saw her do the same thing. The accused admitted the theft, and said she was trying to make up £ls which she had lost the previous week. The Magistrate (Mr C. R. Orr Walker. S.M.) described the theft as premeditated and contemptible. He admitted her to probation on condition she did not take part in similar activities.