Female Superiority

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 3

Female Superiority

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Oct. 19. Shop-lifting in Auckland was a “proper curse,” Miss E. F. Bennett, senior - sergeant in charge of the women’s division of the Auckland police, today told the Auckland Rotary Club.

She said hardly a day passed without the women police being called on to deal with women or children who

had been caught shop-lifting.

She recalled a case where two sisters were arrested for stealing a cardigan valued at a few pounds. They had plenty of money and claimed they had never stolen before. “When a search was made of their home, we had to get a large van out to take away all the stolen goods,” she said. “They had enough umbrellas almost to use one every day of the year, underwear by the carton, electric toasters and even electricshavers, cupboards full of tea and a deepfreeze crammed full of stolen goods. “The only accounts we could find were for electricity and the telephone. “Their story was finally that they bought their Christmas presents early. Now when they see us coming in town, they rush for the nearest bus.”

Women police were better than men, Miss Bennett said, and that also applied to offenders.

“You find that women shoplifters, con-women, and burglars can run rings around the men,” she said. “It’s common to find a woman going into a Queen street store, using someone else’s name, and getting credit for £2OO or £3OO without turning a hair. A man would only get about £50.”