“QUEER SORT OF JOKE.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 69

“QUEER SORT OF JOKE.”

THEFT BY GIRL CLERK. PROCEEDINGS IN POLICE COURT. AUCKLAND, November 30. How an untruth told by a typist to her employers caused several .innocent postal officials to fall under the shadow of suspicion was revealed when a girl, aged 18, admitted in the Police Court, a charge of having stolen a letter containing 255. It was stated by the police that 'the girl had been engaged as clerk and "typist in an office, and instead of posting a letter and cash to a person who dealt with the firm she destroyed the letter and kept the money. She told her employers that she had posted the letter. Producing a file of typewritten documents nearly two inches thick, Chief Detective Hammond said: “This represents the amount of trouble her one lie has put the police to. Every postal official who was supposed to have handled the letter came under suspicion, with the result that the detectives have been kept busy interviewing different people .with the idea of tracing it. Eventually' this girl was suspected, and when interviewed she frankly admitted the offence, but weeks of useless work on the part of the police preceded the girl’s admission.” “ Yes, and- perhaps weeks of worry for innocent men,” said the magistrate (Mr F. K. Hunt). Counsel for the girl said that the position in the office in which she had been employed was still open to her. Her employers Considered her reliable, and were prepared to overlook the present lapse. She had been with them for four years. Although it no doubt sounded weak, her only excuse was that she intended playing a joke upon the man to whom the letter should have gone. She had known him for some time. “It was a queer sort of joke,” commented the magistrate in convicting and ordering the girl to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months. On account of her youth publication of her name was suppressed.