THEFT OF HANDBAGS

Otago Witness, Issue 4039, 11 August 1931, Page 68

THEFT OF HANDBAGS

SHOP CUSTOMERS ROBBED WOMAN SENT TO PRISON. CHRISTCHURCH, August 6. Admitting six charges of theft of handbags, involving £3O, Alice Beatrice Tootell, aged 38, a married woman, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the magistrate (Mr E. D. Mosley). According to the police the accused was a bag-snatcher who worked to a system, but who tried it once too often. The police said the woman’s practice was to go to a showroom of a drapery firm and “ poke about ” trying on a hat or coat, and wait her chance while someone else was being served. She would then pick up a customer’s bag and make off. She was caught through tendering a cheque at a shop from a bag which she had previously. stolen. This cheque had been stopped, so she was apprehended. In many cases the bags were taken from people who could ill afford to lose them. The woman admitted burning the bags, and keeping the money. She was married, with five children, and had not been the court previously.