COAT TAKEN FROM CAR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 26 November 1927, Page 2

COAT TAKEN FROM CAR

A SALUTARY WARNING. This morning in the Police Court, Messrs C. O Ekdahl and L. A. Bone, j> s p being on the bench, a man named Thomas Woods was sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment with hard labour for stealing a coat from a car in High Street. The sentence was made because, in the opinion of the Bench, it was necessary to give. a warning and to protect the public, manv of whom made a practice of leaving coats and rugs in their cars when in town, and often order goods bought to be sent to their cars. Accused pleaded guilty to the theft. Sergeant Martin, in asking for. a short “term of imprisonment to be inflicted said the owner of the coat left it in his car, and, missing it when he came to go home informed the police. He added that Constable Mullan located the accused in a hotel. Ho first said h'e bought it from a man he did not know, but afterwards admitted the theft. The sergeant added that accused had also got some money and an order for bed and meals from the Charitable Aid Board. He had-been drinking for some days. The man was a bird of passage, and nothing else was known against him Accused pleaded for a chance, and expressed regret for having committed the theft, saying he would take out a prohibition order and get back to work. In inflicting the penalty, the Bench said the matter was more serious than appeared at first, and that as so many car-owners left articles in tlieir cars, believing them to be quite sate, an example must he made to act as a deterrent in the future.