SHOE SHOP THEFTS

Evening Star, Issue 21710, 3 May 1934, Page 6

SHOE SHOP THEFTS

ENTRY DETECTED AND INTRUDERS CHASED TWO MEN COMMITTED FOR fRIAL [Pk« Unhid Pose Association.] WELLINGTON, May 2. Pleas of not guilty were entered by William Murphy, a labourer, aged fifty years, and Thomas Joseph O’Shea, a fireman, aged thirty-four, when they were charged in the Magistrate’s Court to-day with breaking and entering on April 15 the shop of R. Hannah and Co. and stealing shoes valued at £9. Tho accused were committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Evidence was given by the manageress of the shop, who said that when she returned to the premises on April 16 she found the glass panel of tho door broken and five pairs of ladies’ shoes missing. She noticed blood on a ledge in the shop, on the floor, and on a foot stool. Gerald Francis Gardner, a salesman, said that he was in Dixon street, at 11.5 p.m. on April 15, and, just before he got to Hannah’s shop, ho heard the tinkling .of glass. As he passed tho shop he saw a man standing in the doorway and another stepping through the broken panel of the door. Witness informed a constable of what he had seen and pointed out the twq men, who were still in the vicinity. Constable Wilson said that he saw two men making down Dixon street, each with a bundle under his arm. Both ran round tho side of a house. Witness followed them and saw Murphy in a hiding attitude along the path. Witness said: “ Come on, I want you,” whereupon Murphy stepped back two or three paces, and, putting his hand to his hip, said: “1 have got a gun on you.” Witness punched Murphy twice, and used his baton on him when he started to call for liis niate. Constable Satherley said that when he arrived at the house in Dixon street he saw a man standing against the wall. He called out to the man, who ran into the house. Witness followed, and in a room upstairs he found the accused O’Shea in bed. There was fresh blood on tho back of O’Shea’s hand. Constable Wills, an assistant in the criminal registration branch of the Police Department, said that he was satisfied that fingerprints found on two pieces of glass taken from the broken door panel were those of the accused.