THIEVING EXTRAORDINARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2669, 10 May 1905, Page 79

THIEVING EXTRAORDINARY.

The Melbourne police "have recently discovered two vast stores of stolen property. About six weeks ago a man named O'Kanc, who kept a second-hand shop, was arrested on a charge of receiving stolen property, and his business premises were found to contain great quantities of stolen goods. A second arrest was made towards the end of April, and has led to further astounding disclosures. William Smith, of Duke street. Collingwood, the person arrested, has now been called upon to answer 30 defined charges of larceny, burglary, etc. His private residence was fitted out from one end to the other with stolen property, and apparently, when the house room became too crowded, as his store of other people's property rapidly increased, he met the difficulty by adding additional rooms to hi 3 house, building a fern!%>use here or a coachhouse there, and the timber used .was nearly all stolen. A search of the premises disclosed four bicycles and motor cycles. There were dozens of pieces of garden hose of varying lengths. In every room was * charming collection of bric-a-brac and clocks of all descriptions, crowded on ©very available mantelpiece. In a pavilion at the sldn of the house was a phaeton, and as it was too big to get out through the door the police think that Smith, after dragging th« stolen vehicle home, built the pavilion around it. Dozens of people have turned up to claim long-lost property. The Grove Street Presbyterian Church claimed a tub, crockery, and some spoons, stolen on the eve of a Sunday school picnic two and a-half years ago. One man identified a wire gauze door as his, and stated that the thiel came to his house a year ago. and, although he and the family were inside, unscrewed the hinges and walked off with it. Another Hawthorn resident related how one evening a man's head suddenly appeared through the bedroom window, and in an instant wag followed by a hand, which grabbed a small drawer and a prayer-book. The owner* rushed put, only to see the thief fast disappearing on a bicycle which had been placed ready for a rapid .retreat. Tools, lamps, silver-backed brushes, and other valuable domestic furnishings were gathered industriously hy Smith from every suburb, but apparently he only wished to make- hia own home beautiful. He never sold his acquired property. Amongst many articles restored to sorrowing victims was a set of teeth long since given up as lost.