THE ENTERPRISING BURGLAR

Evening Post, Volume CCXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1938, Page 8

THE ENTERPRISING BURGLAR

After serving nine months' imprisonment, a burglar, according to a Vienna cable message, was awarded damages against a household whose dog bit him on the night of the crime. The message is tantalising in its brevity. The dog, it is stated, was found standing over the burglar, who was caught with the booty. We are not I old whether the dog belonged to the burgled household and chased and caught the burglar, or whether it just arrested and bit him on the chance of his being a criminal, "being without lawful excuse," etc. Had the clog been a motion-picture star, the defence might have proved that it sensed the presence of booty and housebreaking implements and intelligently aided the forces of law and order. But apparently the dog was not credited with super-intelligence, and tlie Court awarded damages on •■the principle laid dawn by, JK. S v

Gilbert-that when the felon's not engaged in his employment—

His capacity for innocent, enjoyment Is just as great as any honest man's. No man really enjoys being billon by a dog, and, again quoting Gilbert:

When the enterprising burglar isn't burgling, When the cut-throat isn't occupied in crime, He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling, And listen to the merry village chime.

But here is where the cable message fails to give us information. Did the Court take account of the enterprising burglar's delight in rural pleasures, and assess damages with allowances for nine months' deprivation of such innocent enjoyment? Was there an addition to damages for loss of the booty, and another addition for loss of employment? The Vienna journalist who so far disregarded Lord Northcliffe's aphorism as to give us news of a dog biting a man might have gone a little further. As it is, householders may be uncertain Avhether it is safe (for them) to leave biting dogs loose when burglars may call. It may be necessary, also, to have burglar alarms tested, lest an electrical fault should give a burglar a shock.