THEFT CHARGE FAILS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19626, 3 May 1927, Page 12

THEFT CHARGE FAILS.

REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE. YOUTH AND CARTRIDGES. MAGISTRATE'S OBSERVATIONS. A remarkable coincidence was involved in a case heard in the Onehunga Police Court yesterday, when a youth was charged with stealing some cartridges of a peculiar make. The evidence showed that accused had originally bought the cartridges for a friend, from whom they were subsequently stolen. A few evenings later he was at a picture theatre and sat alongside a young man who was showing to a companion the very same cartridges. He was so struck by their particular make that he questioned him as to how he got them, and although he had never seen the young man before, arid might possibly not be quite sure of recognising him again, he succeeded in persuading him to give up the cartridges, so that he could restore them to their rightful owner. The holder explained that they were four short, as he had used that number. On obtaining possession, accused took the first opportunity to tell the owner that he had recovered them, but he was apprehended before he could restore them. The magistrate, Mr. Poynton, observed that such a coincidence seemed most extraordinary, for it seemed impossible that of the thousands attending the picture theatres accused should happen to sit alongside the very youth who had them, and further, that the youth should be handling them while in the theatre. Yet he had come across so many equally remarkable coincidences that he was no longer prepared to shut the door against the improbable. The magistrate said that on one occasion he saw a patriarchal veteran, more like a clergyman than a thief, sentenced to three months' imprisonment for stealing an overcoat from the lobby of a public hall, and the following year the same patriarch was again sentenced for, stealing an overcoat from another hall. It turned out to be the very same overcoat! All would remember the coincidence during the Boxer when the, names of the three commanders-in-chief of the Great Powers operating there—Britain, Germany and Japan—alle. ended in "ee."When the evidence was as clear as in the present case, he would not. throw it out just because it included a remarkable coincidence. The charge was dismissed.