AMATEUR SANDBAGGER.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2474, 14 October 1922, Page 5

AMATEUR SANDBAGGER.

YOUTHFUL BURGLAR’S QUEER TACTICS. WANTED BAIL TO GET MARRIED. (Por Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Last Night. As an outcome of the Grand Hotel episode, in which the racehorse owner William Henry Ballinger was struck on the head while asleep in his bedroom a young man. Vivian Jones, was arrested and charged this morning with breaking and entering, with intent to commit crime. Ballinger, when he retired to bed on Wednesday night, found the key of his room missing. He was awakened at 2.30 by a blow with a sandbag, and jumped out of bed, colliding with a person, who escaped down the fire escape. A detective found the key of the room in accused’s pocket.

Accused stated that he had gone to the Grand in the evening, and taken the key from the room in the upper storey. Returning early in the morning, he entered the room. The man in bed woke up, and accused struck him with a sock filled with soil. Accused pleaded guilty. The Chief Detective stated that he was not long out from the Borstal Institute, where he was committed for breaking and entering in Wellingon. After pleading, accused expressed a desire for bail, stating that he wished to get married. He was committed for sentence, but bail was refused.