PILFERING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 13

PILFERING

THIEVES AT THE FIRE

Although members of the Fire Police under Captain F. J. Ballinger and Deputy Captain J. A. Short, together with members of the I Squadrori, Legion of Frontiersmen, were on duty and performed good work last night, the crowd which gathered in Willis Street, and the general confusion made conditions ideal for pilfering, and several cases of theft were reported this morning.

As soon as the danger of the fire spreading was realised the occupants of the shops, assisted by some honest citizens, removed their stock, and dumped it, in the first place, on the footpath. The licensee of the Carlton Hotel made his premises available as a shelter for goods, but some articles that left one side of the street never reached the other.

A case was reported today of a man who picked up a car radio, valued at £16, and sold it to a passer-by for 10s.

This morning a Willis Street shopkeeper visited several shops in an endeavour to return goods that had been left on his doorway to their owners. "There was a pile of stuff in my doorway," he remarked to a "Post" reporter, "and some of the articles are worth at least a 'fiver.'"

One electrical firm which hastily removed its stock was definitely of the opinion that a lot was missing, and the manager remarked ruefully that a stocktaking would be the only way of ascertaining just how much had been pilfered.