AN OWNER WANTED.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1212, 22 May 1885, Page 3

AN OWNER WANTED.

A remarkable instance of stolen money being recovered by voluntary restitution, says the Melbourne Age, came under the notice of the head of the detective police, and is still the subject of an unsettled claim. On April 7 it came to the knowledge of Detective Ward that a middle-aged man, whose name and address could not be ascertained, had been robbed of a large sum of money by a woman in a house of ill-fame. Ward, after making careful inquiries into the matter, could only learn that the amount stolen was between LCD and L7O, and that the money consisted entirely of new sovereigns. Without knowing the number of the inmates Ward proceeded to the street indicated, where quite unexpectedly, he was accosted by a woman named Ellen Ryan, who said “Ah, Mr Ward, 1 know what you are looking for, here is the money,” at the same lime handing the astonished officer a small cigar box containing thirty-eight perfectly new sovereigns. She said this was ‘‘all that was left of the money the man had lost at her house.'’ Ward took possession of the newly minted gold, and gave it to Inspector Kennedy. For a whole month the owner could not be found, and no one made any claim to the money, when it was decided by the police authorities to restore it to the woman Ryan. She was informed of this, and directed to appear at the detective office at noon on April 17 to receive the 1.33. But only at an hour before the time appointed, and as she was preparing to go out to get the money, the woman died suddenly in .her house. The only other claimant who appears, after the unknown owner, to have a right to the gold is Detective Ward, this is according to a preco cut which happened some years ago, when a constable’s dog discovered a large ro Lot notes, which had for a long tinn been buried ’n the earth, and the constihlejwaa awarded the unclaimed treasure trove.