Exploits Confidence With Ease

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7143, 14 February 1930, Page 3

Exploits Confidence With Ease

WERAROA ESCAPEE. ARRESTED IN FEILDING DISTRICT If tlie career, during a brief spell of liberty, of a Weraroa escapee, now securely lodged in the Feilding lock-up can bo accepted as any criterion, shopkeepers are still far from being on .their guard against exploitation by adepts at the art of putting over a good bluff. Arrested on Wednesday .afternoon at Waiaba, the escapee, a youth of 18, found no difficulty in convincing shopkeepers in several towns, as well as Feilding, to supply him with articles of wearing apparel, without cash and he might have still been at it had he not borrowed the Feilding Borough poundkeeper’s hack and left the owner lamenting. It was this high handed act that led to his apprehension for the reported disappearance of the horso set the police active. The youth, who will have a long string of charges to face, in addition to that of escaping from the State farm, gained his liberty when assisting another confnee to turn out a herd of cows. Making across, country ho came upon a whare where ho secured a ohango of clothing and then gained a lift to Wellington. In the city he found it an easy matter, to visit the picture theatres by dodging in when the doorkeeper was not 100-king. He quickly tired of this and turned once again to the country making use of the railways to secure both stolen rides and sleeping accommodation. . In Palm--ersiton he secured some clothing from shopkeepers who bad no reason to doubt the confident manner of address of the youth and on arriving in Feilding he employed the same tactics with equal success. His modus operandi, on arriving at a new town, was to seek c. public telephone box and then look over the directory to obtain a little local knowledge. Thus equipped he would approach a shopkeeper and make purchases on approval and when questioned would reply that he was a son of so and so living at number X in ■such and such a street. He had an ■answer for every question and a wiay with him that quickly established confidence. Three or four shops and an hotel in Feilding wore so victimised and then he set about securing a horse for the purpose of seeking a job in the country. A well known drover was first approached but he did not make a practice of lending his mount, so the escapee fell back on the pound'keeper’s hack which ho found conveniently available. This theft proved his undoing for he was soon a-rrested and ■then was revealed a long list of acts amounting to false pretences. The police communicated with several shopkeepers who were reluctant to confess that they had been duped. When the police enquiries are completed the young man will make . his appearance in court.