STOLEN BANK NOTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 90, 16 April 1929, Page 11

STOLEN BANK NOTES

HIDDEN IN OPERA-GL4SSES A CONSTABLE’S DISCOVERY. HAWERA, April 12. A police constable blinked when he peered through a pair of opera glasses he picked up in the wharc of William Noel Crosbie Cole, of Manaia, a 20-year-old farm labourer, the other day. The constable focussed the glasses, but could see no daylight on the other side. The plans of Cole were wrecked from that moment. He had hoped to gaze through the same glasses and see the horse racing at New Plymouth last week. He had hoped also to wear at the races the overcoat of Harry F. Johns, which he had stolen from the dance hull at Auroa, and he had liope-l also to invest part of the £3O 3s 8d he had stolen from the Manaia store of the Kaupokonui Dairy Company, Ltd. Afterwards a trip to Auckland he had fancied. The sudden change in the plans resulted because the constable unscrewed the lens caps from the opera glasses, which really belonged to B. Cannon, of Hawera, and instead of dust and a faulty focus he found two “fivers” lying tucked away in the barrels. No races, no Auckland tour, but departure this week for a term of one year at a Borstal institute was what the future hold for the young man. Denial of all knowledge of the thefts had been made by Cole when the. constable called on him. With a flourish of bravado he invited the officer then and there to search the wharc thoroughly. That time nothing was found. A “next time” came, however. Henring that. Cole contemplated visiting the New Plymouth races and Auckland, the constable returned. He could not sec through the glasses, and found £lO there. Behind the silver mountings of two hair brushes he found four £1 notes. Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M., told Cole in the Hawera Police Court yesterday that he had had his chances, but had not taken them.