"VAGRANT” WITH OVER £500

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1929, Page 9

"VAGRANT” WITH OVER £500

AMAZING BEGGAR IN GISBORNE.

By Tebigraph—Press Association.

Gisborne, Last Night. The police force sees so many and much varied sides of life that it takes anuch to surprise an experienced officer, ■but Senior-Sergeant . Wade, who happened to he in charge at the time, and detectives and constables at tho Gisborne police station received on Saturday evening what all agreed was the “ishock of their lives.”

For some weeks past a middle-aged woman has been annoying residents of Kaiti, a suburb of Gisborne, by begging from door to door and numerous complaints were received. On Saturday evening the police located the woman and she was taken to the station, where it was intended to lay a charge of vagrancy. The woman denied the charge and said she had £lO. Asked to produce it she said it was in her baggage, which proved to ; be an old battered article of black leather -without a catch. Detectives searched and found a tightly wrapped bundle of banknotes, ranging in value from 10s to £2O. These ■were spread out on the table and to the amazement of all were found to total £570. In reply .to questions the woman said it -was her own money from a building society in another' town. The information was found to be correct. For four or five months she had .carried the money about with her, taking the viewpoint that the money was much safer in her possession than in a bank. The police sent the woman to the care of a charitable institution. T,*" 1 * day the money was banked and the woman was despatched to the care of relatives.