AN INTERRUPTED WEDDING.

West Coast Times, Issue 7299, 21 January 1889, Page 4

AN INTERRUPTED WEDDING.

A very singular robbery of a suite of furniture occurred in the suburb of Fitzroy on the night of December 30. Mr George Justz discovered that bis furniture, valued at £50, had been stolen from his front room during tbe night, the window haying been prised open with a chisel or jemmy. The furniture was afterwards found In a secondhand broker's shop, who said he had purchased it for £13 from a man giving the name of Mathews. The broker being shown some photographs by the police recognised one of them as Mathews, and Mr Justz being shown it, to his intense surprise, found that it was the photo of a cousin of his, named Carpenter, who had been at his house on the very night during which the burglary was committed, and stated that he was to be married that day (New Year's Day). Constable Cameron was told off to effect the arrest, and he did this at the residence of the mother of the accused, as be was making preparations for his marriage. Carpenter admitted the offence, and stated that he removed the furniture at intervals in a wheelbarrow. This statement, of course, is not believed by the police, aB the articles of furniture were very heavy, aud it would have been an impossibility for anyone to remove them In a wheelbarrow, to say nothing of the suspicion that such a proceeding would arouse. Meanwhile, the intended bride had been busy making her toilet to receive her future spouse at the altar. The intelligence reached her brother, and he broke it to her. She refused to credit it, and insisted on going to the watchhouse. This she did in company of her brother. On seeing her intended husband in the cell and a prisoner, she uttered a piercing shriek and fainted. She was then removed in an hysterical condition to her home. The greatest consternation and surprise were occasioned by Carpen* ter's action ; many of his relations stoutly refused to believe the accusation until they visited Fitzroy watchhouse and saw for themselves that it was true. The accused has hitherto borne an irreproachable character, and was always looked upon as a hard-working steady young man.