THEFT OF SIGNAL WIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20131, 17 December 1928, Page 13

THEFT OF SIGNAL WIRE.

RAILWAY EMPLOYEE'S LAPSE. prosecution at pukekohe. [by telegraph.—OWN correspondent.] PUKEKOHE, Sunday. The theft of scwt. of copper wire, valued at £lB. the property of the Railways Department, was admitted by Bernard William Gill, aged 27 ye?.rs, in the Pukekohe Police Court to-day before Messrs. J. T. Stembridge and F. Perkins, J.P.'s. The circumstances, as explained by the police, were that accused accosted a carrier from Putaruru passing through Mercer and asked him if he would take a consignment of wire to a second-hand dealer in Auckland. The carrier agreed and accused took him to where the wire was secreted under some blackberry. Accused told him not to let anyone know where the wire came from and told the carrier that his name was "Harris." Tho carrier advised accused that the circumstances seemed to be such that he could not undertake the carrying of the wire. He then reported tho matter to the police, with the result that Constable Douglas, of Mercer, arrested accused. The wire is of tho kind used for electric signal wires on the railway between Auckland and Hamilton. Accused was employed as a temporary hand in work connection with the erection of tho lines. Accused was fined £5 and admitted to probation for a year.