HAWERA TRADERS DUPED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 27 June 1935, Page 8

HAWERA TRADERS DUPED

Woman Who Had Several Bicycles for Sale ALL TOLD SAME TALE FOUR STOLEN MACHINES

Practically every cycle dealer in Hawvera is bemoaning the fact that he recently fell a victim to the wiles of a young woman and paid over good money for a bicycle which the woman had no right to sell. The woman—she could not have been more than 19 years of age—went into a Hawera cycle shop and told the proprietor la tale of how she was going to Wanganui and. did not want to have the inconvenience of taking her bicycle with her on the back of a “baby” car. She asked the shopkeeper what he could do about it, and after 1 considerable haggling, he agreed to buy the machine for 12s Gd. The girl left the shop, to return a few minutes Inter with the bicycle, and the, money was paid over. She departed, not for Wanganui as it happened, but to another cycle shop. In the second shop she told the same tale, and with the same result.

Probably exhilarted with her success, she looked round for another victim, but on this occasion she took yet another bicycle with her. Interviewing the proprietor of this establishment, she met with a stern refusal and she wheeled the machine from the shop, remarking that she could not be bothered taking the cycle with her, and she would have to give il away. This information got the shopman in a tender spot, and he called her back, saying he would give her 25s for it. She assented with alacrity land another deal was made.

Yet a fourth cycle dealer was caught in the net before it was discovered that all the cycles were stolen! Not only did four cycle shop proprietors lose their money, but four Hawera residents lost (perhaps temporarily) their bicycles. “She was the last girl in the world whom I would have suspected of such a trick,” was one victim’s remark.