BREEF FREEDOM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 219, 15 September 1928, Page 8

BREEF FREEDOM

TWO YOUTHS AT LARGE RECAPTURED AT OKOIA The escapades of two youths. William Henry John Stewart and Arthur Gibson, who ran away from the Wereroa Training Farm on Sunday evening, came to a conclusion with their arrest at Okoia on Wednesday morning by Constable H. J. Thompson. After getting away from the farm Stewart and Gibson stole a car and ptoceeded to Palmerston North and then to Sandon. At the latter place the car broke down and was abandoned in favour of another. The engine of this stalled, however, and as the thieves were discovered they took to their heels and tramped around the country. On Tuesday it was learned that the lads had prosed a horse and trap into service for their conveyance and Constable Thompson, on being advised by Mr H. Brightwell, of Pukepapa Road, on Inesday morning, followed them up. At Turakina it was found that two thefts ha<l been committed and a passing motorist said he had met the trap on the outskirts of Wanganui. At the Wanganui bridge a decision had to be made as to whether the lads had gone into the city or straight ahead, and in the dust at the corner the constable got the indications he required. Traps are not common these days, and it was plain that a trap wheel had gone over the dust on the bitumen, straight up-river. The constable overtook the boys at Okoia, and found in the trap a tent, a slasher, a leg of lamb, a pig’s head and liver, cream, apples, potatoes, three pairs of gumboots and clothing in plenty. Back in Marton, they told their story and were sent back to Wereroa. Numerous charges of theft will be heard in Levin later.