CLOTHES SLASHED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 225, 16 June 1908, Page 7

CLOTHES SLASHED.

•—: ——« — EXTRAORDINARY CRAZE. ■ WOMEN'S DRESSES CUT TO PIECES. PLAYGOERS SUFFER. : For some time past there has been operating in Wellington a stupid crank, whose . particular mental kink induces him to cut tho clonks and dresses of well-dressed women when they.assemble so close as not to observo his operations. Tho peculiar person is cunning to a degree, and never commits an offence unless it is in the press of a crowd wliero any touch, accidental or otherwise, would never. be noticed. At the beginning of the Julius Knight-Ola- Humphrey season two or three women found their opera cloaks cut from the waist to tho bottom hem, others found their dresses cut, and in tho case of> ouo girl her blouso was actually about. The whole of this cutting was done with some keoo-bladod instrument, tt is reported that prior to this the dresses af some' ladies standing outside a newspaper • office watching the results' of tho reccnt Mayoral election being posted up woro slashed and cut about without the wearers being any the wiser until their attention was drawn to the tatters left behind.

The police, who" wero informed of these outrages some' weeks ago, have been on the look-out for the crazy perpetrator whereverthere are crowds of people, but so far they - have been unable to detcct the offender. It is stated • that at the Opera House recently one young lady felt someone touching tho back of her clothes, and, looking round, she saw a man, who sidled off through the crowd, hiding his face in his arms. This young lady, who subsequently found her cloak cut about, is positive that the man referred to was the guilty .party. One of the detectives who has been interested in the matter believes that tho person uses a tiny, keen-bladed knife attached to a ring on one of the fingers, such an,instrument as is used by tho Bneak-tliiovea of London and other big cities for cutting out purses and snipping ladies' bag-handles and gentlemen's'watch guards. Whatever it is that is used, and whoever the user may bo, it is hoped that ho will ho apprehended before long, and that ho will bo doalt with as severely as such a serious offence warrants.