A SMART CAPTURE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10545, 23 March 1920, Page 5

A SMART CAPTURE

TROOPSHIP THEFTS. PILFERING ON ATHEXIC. With the arrival of a troopship there are usually to bo heard numerous complaints in regard tfl petty thefts during the voyage. ' Glancing cursorily through the contents of a second-hand dealer’s shop in Auckland in pursuit of nothing in particular, Detective Gourley, of the waterside police, espied a particularly fine pair of German binoculars which immediately arrested his attention on account of their rarity and value. Inquiries of the dealer showed that they had been sold bw a man who stated that ho was off the troopship Athenic. A call at the ship elicited the information that nothing had been missed during the voyage, and that the was in every wav an exemplary one. _ Nevertheless, the detective deemed it expedient, to make the personal acquaintance of the crew, and from the description given hy the second-hand dealer recognised one James Alfred Enginell, a greaser, as tallying with the seller of the glasses. An interview resulted in the man confessing that he had helped himself to the kit of Sergeant Doyle when the boat arrived at Wellington, and that, after taking its contents, had thrown the lag overboard. A search showed other property concealed in- the. man’s hunk, and in another part of the ship, and he was accordingly arrested on a charge of theft. .