NOT A FAIR EXCHANGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 1

NOT A FAIR EXCHANGE

HOW FIREMAN GOT A HAT SHIPMATE ROBBED It is not every day that mystery men give caps away. But Patrick Byrne, a fireman of 34 years of age, met a mystery man who did. So lie told the police in a statement. Byrne was in the Police Court this morning charged with stealing a hat, valued at £l, from James McKenna, a former shipmate of his. McKenna said he was in an hotel bar when Byrne came in, removed witness’s hat, and instantly departed with it. In place of the hat, Byrne left a cap of some antiquity. Witness gave Byrne a day in which to return the hat, but Byrne refused flatly to hand back the hat. “Byrne was a shipmate of mine,” McKenna told the Court, regretfully. “And he put a dirty cap on my head.” Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: Well, then, let me see this cap. Sub-Inspector McCarthy held up a particularly grimy cap. “I must sa3 r the cap was not fair exchange for the hat,” decided the magistrate. Byrne gave a brief history of the cap he tried to rid himself of in a statement read in Court. “This cap,” the statement said, “was given to me in an hotel bar by a man I always call him ‘The Mystery Man.’ ” Mr. Hunt: Have you anything to say? Accused: Xo. Mr. Hunt fined Byrne £l. in default seven days’ imprisonment. Byrne already had a list of offences.