PETTY SHOPLIFTING

Southland Times, Issue 21657, 19 March 1932, Page 7

PETTY SHOPLIFTING

WELL-TO-DO WOMAN. ARTICLES OF LITTLE VALUE. That she stole articles of practically no value which she did not want was said of a well-to-do woman of Harrow when she appeared before a London magistrate accused of stealing a bottle of nail varnish, a necklace, and two rings, value 2/6, from a shop in Oxford Street. A detective stated that while her fingerprints were being taken defendant said, “I didn’t mean 0 steal them. Will you send for my husband? He will understand what made me do it.” Counsel for defendant stated that she had had 21 years of perfect happiness with her husband, a professional man in a good position, to whom the country owed a debt of gratitude. On this particular day she was to have lunched with her husband, but she missed him, and she went shopping by herself. Then, for some inexplicable reason, she took these articles. They were articles of no value to her—she would not think of wearing them or of giving them away. Nobody could understand why she

had done it. She had suddenly committed an act which she had never before contemplated. The magistrate fined defendant £3, and advised her to keep away from stores where goods were so conveniently displayed.