POCKET-PICKING IN QUEERSTREET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12238, 6 April 1903, Page 5

POCKET-PICKING IN QUEERSTREET.

IA WORKMAN ROBBED OF £14. 'AN" incident which should be a warning to travellers on electric cars, and set them on their guard against pickpockets, occurred in Queen-street on Saturday evening. Mr. Thomas Dickenson, who is employed at the railway workshops at Newmarket, and lives at Epsom, had been in town with his wife and family during the afternoon and evening, He had just drawn his month's wages, and carried in his tvouser pocket two purses containing altogether about £14. He was joining the quarter to nine car for Epsom at the wharf terminus, and as there was a scramble for seats on the car he carried one of his children in his arni3 to save, the little one from being crushed. Just before starting to push his way into the car, Mr. Dickenson felt the purses in his pocket, but when he got seated in the car he put his hand into his pocket to get money to pay his fare, and found both purses gone. The car had not reached the Waverley Hotel when he made the discovery', and he at once asked the conductor t:> p'uil up, and gave information to the police. He has no doubt that some pickpocket, taking advantage of the crush, and of the fact that his arms were occupied with the child, picked both purses out of his pocket, and got off with the whole £14. The case is a very hard one for' Mr. Dickenson, who is well known at the Newmarket workshops, involving, as it does, rather more than a month's earnings. Tho matter is now in the hands of tha police.