SHOP LIFTING CHARGES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19999, 15 July 1920, Page 2

SHOP LIFTING CHARGES.

* [Pee Press Association-.] AUCKLAND, July 14, A man of German birth, named Louis von Eincm, forty-seven years of age, known among a small circle as a. gardener, of mild manner, and given to attending strictly to his own business, appeared before Mr Wilson, S.M., ibis morning as the alleged author of a series of the most expert shoplifting operations width have yet disturbed the peace, happiness and profits of shopkeepers of Auckland. About, half-past six one morning last month Constable Holt surprised this man tampering with a. locked case at one of Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs’s island windows in Vieen Street, and. despite the explanation that he was attending to the firm's business the man was taken by the constable to the police station. From what was found on the man, and was discovered subsequently at his lodgingroom, the police made a collection of neariy all new, valued at just o.or £4OO. Just on four weeks wer*' M e m fc H 7 Ser g ca > lf - Dempsey and Con■lahle Holt in finding owners for the property. This resulted in about sixt" shopkeepers about the city and subnrbs identifying £230 worth of millincry, drapery, jewellery and 'mercery vv Inch bad disappeared from their several shops during the past eighteen months. As a result von Einera was charged on sixty-nino counts of theft of goods taken from various shops, etc. rained at £2/3 3s 2d. Ono charge of theft is of unidentified goods valued at £lO4, and another charge is of the theft of £2l worth of goods at Wellington. The section of the Oourtroom in which the poods were displayed consequently had the appearance of a well-

stocked sample-room. Bottles of hay rum hobnobbed with delicate and intimate underwear and fabrics that ladies affect. Suit ca.ses and brief bags were interspersed with Stetson velour, felt and tweed hats. A stylish toque perched saucily on a, typewriter, A smart evening gown gave a, touch of colour to the comer given over to several portions of tailor-made suits, and a. pair of modest'brown boots (number tens) rivalled in dimensions a. Corona typewriter ; while fountain pens of a wide variety of makes and mounts appeared iu company with several watches, a couple of umbrellas, thermos flasks and a lady’s hair switch. If there were any special -departure from the catholicity of taste displayed it was perhaps in the. matter of fountain pons and hats. Among the assortment ptft forward as stolen goods were seventeen fountain pens (many of them gold-mounted), which were identified and claimed, and sixty-eight unclaimed. There were eleven hats claimed hr local shopkeepers, and half a dozen are not yet identified. ranging from n, six-guinea, Stetson, by way of velours and felts, down to work-a-dny t weed bats. The bearing of the cases occupied all day and bad not concluded when the Court adjourned. *