A DISHONEST PORTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3958, 21 January 1930, Page 23

A DISHONEST PORTER.

AUCKLAND. January 17. How a trap was laid to catch a thief, and how a porter at the Blind Institute fell into it, was told to Air F. K. Hunt. S.AL, in the Police Court this morning. Archibald Stuart APBean (aged 33) pleaded guilty to stealing 10s, the property of Joseph Emsley Broadfoot.

Chief Detective Hammond told the story. He said that APBean was a porter at the Blind Institute. For the past three months there had been a series of thefts from the clothes of the blind men at the institute. A trap was set, and APBean fell into it. A partly’ blind man was given a 10s note. This was purposely dropped on the floor of the man’s room. APBean, seeing it, had put his foot on it, then he had slyly dropped his handerchief over the note and picked it up. APBean, when interviewed, said that the note was in his room, but it was later found that it had been cashed in a Newmarket hotel. APBean had said that be had kept it in his room waiting for somebody to claim it. Appearing for the accused. Air Holmden said that APBean wor.ld plead guilty. He knew nothing about the other thefts that had been committed at the institute. The accused had no relatives in this country, and had been working at the Blind Institute for the past two years. He was a member of an organisation known as the Welcome Club. APBean felt the situation very much. Ho had lost his job, and he had also lost the confidence of those who had befriended him in the Welcome Club. He would, of course, make restitution. The magistrate remanded APBean in custody for a week so that a report could be obtained from the probation officer.