SHOP THIEVES CAUGHT.

Shannon News, 31 March 1922, Page 3

SHOP THIEVES CAUGHT.

TWO MEN DEALT WITH

The display of goods in Mr Running's store, at Shannon last Saturday night was so tempting that some person was .tempted to take away from the door two blankets and six pairs of men’s hose, worth £2 0/. Mr Gunning did not object to the. articles being taken. What he objected to was not getting paid for them, so he went and asked the opinion of the police, and their view was- that the person who took the goods did not take them on approval nor would bring them back nor pay for them unless drastic action was taken. The clue, or fact, that a cake of soap worth a shilling was stolen from Mr Joe Beard, of . the Shannon Cash Trading Society, about the same time, did not help the police. As it turned out eventually, however, it was a clue, and on Monday, 27th inst., the police arrested two men. Robert Duke Monson, of Whitanui, was arrested for stealing the soap and other articles, and a man named Gerald Frank Newbury, a stranger to the town, was taken into custody for taking the goods from Monson, well knowing that they were stolen. On the Tuesday morning, both men were brought before Messrs. Spencer and Murdoch, Justices, at Shannon. Monson admitted, after evidence was called, that he took the goods aforementioned, and that he was foolish in doing so, as he did not want them for himself, and only gave them to Newbury through sheer generosity and goodness of heart.

Newbury said he knew the goods were stolen, but took them because Monson gave them to him.

The Justices were of the opinion that the man who received the goods was as bad as the man who stole them, and fined the men £4 each and costs, or a month each for due reflection in Wellington Gaol.