LIST LUGGED.

NZ Truth, Issue 327, 30 September 1911, Page 6

LIST LUGGED.

MASON MAKES NO MISTAKE^

A Systematic Sneak-Thief Snared.

jj Overcoats, shirts, and socks- galore t Ufczive bee?i mysteriously missed with- , m - the laist couple of months, from /steamers about to depart from Wel- . lihgton, from hotels m the city, and from more than one clothing emporium, including: the one of which .the , New Evangelist m politics is the head and front, but, until last Saturday evening, all efforts to trace the purloiner were singularly unsuccessful. On Saturday evening Detective Mason espied a man acting- myster- , iously m front of the (Union Clothing 1 . - Company's premises m Cuba-street, . -and, watching him for a few minutes, '* saw his quarry . •■■■■; .. DBLIBERiTELY PICK UP-A • SHIRT, vhide it under his ■ coat, and walk away. The "demon" pounced upon 'Ais'man and marched him off to the Lambtbn-quay police station. Explanations followed, and a' solution was obtained of the mysterious cioth;''ing. thefts. ' .-." ■ ■■'..■ ■•■■'■, , -■ V '". * The capture, Frederick List '■", by name, was a tall, thin man, with a prominent hooked nose, and generally .cadaverous appearance, and he might be anywhere about 40 years of , age. That he was a hard ease . was amply evidenced by his previous criminal record. On September 27,. 1909," he received six 'months' imprisonment with :.hard labor at the Auckland Supreme ■ Court on a charge of attempted false •pretences, and on August 29, 1910, he was convicted at the same court on ' two charges of theft, .receiving- six months', Imprisonment, with hard labor on each charge, such sentences to be cumulative. List made no bones about his nefarious '„ practices, but detailed them ■ with all gusto to the d's. , Discharged from Auckland gaol, on July 14 last, he obtained a railway v-ticket for Wellington from the • Chari>tabm Aid Board, and, on it, arrived m, the windy city' a few days later. He •then had little or no money.- On August 3 he obtained a job to scrub floors at' the hospital. He did only two hours' work, after which he found his way into Dr. Ewart's .; room, and relieved the worthy medico of an overcoat and' a surgical instrument, of the ; total value of £ 6.7 '.}. He sold the overcoat arid . . ; v THREW THfe INSTRUMENT INTO THE HARBOR. . On August S he boarded the s.s. TJlimaroa, and appropriated ; another overcoat valued at £ 1 10s, which, he ..'says he sold. v . '"" • On ; August 10 he yisited -the ; s.s. Manuka' annexed an overcoat valued at £5, the property of James ■.Scott, which he also says he sold. ,• . On September 1 he again visited the s.s., Manuka, on a later trip to "Wellington, and took an overcoat valued : :sct\ £"2, the property one " Donald Caimplin Gray, which he pawned, for ■•ios."- •'■■' "' ' -; / " ';■"■ V' '. . . ' : \ '•• :.:.'.. l "-". :; ; .- On September S he .went aboard the s.s. Mqeraki and seized an overcoat valued at £2. / \ . On September 12 he went into the\ Grand 'Hotel and -took an overcoatvalued at £3 10s, the property of one. •E. Moss, which he sold to a second- : dealer. '■ ■ ' ■. -' '. ■■■,;.-•.;' ' ' .-'"' ■- .'■■■: . ' On September 14 he did a double shuffle, appropriating a shirt, vabaed at 4s 6d; from James Smith, Limited,: -and a siinjilar article of the ;■. same value from the Union Clothing Company. ■■:'■;,. .- ":-. ".■■"/ :' •;;,:;-.: :>'y' ■■ .. : .-:\'^. On September 15 he relieved George. Fowlds,- Limited, of, nine pairs of "socks, valued at 9s, T AND ANNEXED AN OVERCOAT, valued, at £4, from a steamer lying at the wharf. ; r • : .\ . It was on the following day, when ,payirig a second visit to the Union 'Clothing Company, that Detective : Mason grabbed him. . The sum of £ 1 14s 6d was found on him, the balance left of the result of his systematic thefts. ■Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M., played the next hand m the Wellington Magistrate's Court on • the. 20tii inst., when List pleaded ' guilty to eleven charges ;of theft. His Worship sentenced him to six months' imprisonment On the charge of robbing the doctor, and to three" ■months' imprisonment on each of the other charges, such sentences, to run concurrently, and it was ordered that the sum of 21s be deducted f rom . the money found on 1 him, and applied to reimbursing the, second-hand dealers. -