STRANGE HIDING PLACES

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1932, Page 5

STRANGE HIDING PLACES

OLD MEN’S VALUABLES.

REMARKABLE INGENUITY.

The inmates of the old mens homes of Sydney show remarkable cunning,in concealing money or articles of value. Few accept the advice that their money will be safer with the authorities. Recently an old, bed-ridden man, who had been in hospital, for nine months, died, and it was thought he was penniless. When his clothing was removed, a £lO note was found in his-sock, yet his socks had been changed by attendants twice weekly all the time he was in the institution. Every time they were to be changed the old'man had put the note in his mouth, and when the change had been made he replaced it in the sock. Many of the men wear belts under their clothing in which their little store of valuables is kept. Some years ago an inmate of one of the old men’s homes at Parramatta was found to have small nuggets of gold worth £lOO in a belt he always wore. The department charged his estate with his maintenance for two years, and so secured the gold. Boots are another favourite hiding place, and an old bootmaker at Newington once left a will in which he directed his grandson, an only surviving relative, to take the soles from his boots. The grandson was surprised io find four £5O notes.