POULTRY THIEVES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 140, 10 December 1935, Page 16

POULTRY THIEVES

ACTS OF DESECRATION

CHURCH BUILDINGS LITTERED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, December 9,

Poultry thieves have desecrated church buildings in the Upper Fendalton and Harewood districts during the past fortnight. After raiding poultry farms they have cleaned their plunder in church buildings, littering them with feathers.

The first case occurred more than a week ago. Fowlhouses in the Yaldhurst district were raided and the birds taken to a small building in Coringa Road which is used for church services. Here the thieves cleaned the poultry, scattering the feathers and cleanings all over the building.

The second raid, apparently by the same gang, was made last Wednesday on the fowlhouses of Mr. L. Kearne 294 Harewood Road. Twelve fowls' and an old pet Buff Orpington rooster were taken. The birds were cleaned in the Methodist Church at Harewood Kerosene heaters were used to singe them, and the place was littered in the same manner as the building in Coringa Road. On Thursday members cleaned the church thoroughly, and on Friday they found that the building had again been used by thieves. Cleanings from the poultry were scattered all over the walls, and the cover of the Bible on the pulpit had been used for wiping purposes, and it had been replaced with a bloodstained newspaper. A cylinder from a heater was missing, curtains had been pulled down, and other damage was done