An Interesting Case
| Published date | 01 October 1938 |
| Date | 01 October 1938 |
| Author | H. Haslehurst |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3801100408 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
An
Interesting Case
By CONSTABLE H.
HASLEHURST
(Wiltshire Constabulary)
THE following account of a case of larceny of an automatic
cigarette machine, one of those less serious crimes which
the Police are called upon to investigate quite frequently, is
presented in the hope that it will prove of some interest to
readers in the Police service; it is not claimed to be sensational
or unique,
but
it does illustrate very well the reward which in
this instance resulted from the patient piecing together of
fragments of information and the appreciation of the value of
scientific evidence.
At 7 a.m. on the
rzth
March, 1938, information was given
at the Police Station, Chippenham, that a cigarette machine
had been found in a ditch by the side of the Chippenham-
Bristol Road, about a mile on the west side of Chippenham.
When officers went to the scene, they found the machine,
which weighed about 2cwt., lying on its back in the stream,
and at once recognised it as the property of Messrs.
F.
Holland
and Co., wholesale tobacconists, of High Street, Chippenham.
On examination of the machine, it was apparent that it
had been forced open with some instrument similar to a
screwdriver, and two dark hairs were found entangled with the
internal mechanism.
The
property stolen was found to be a
number of
20
and
10
packets of Gold Flake, Capstan Navy
Cut
and Player's cigarettes, and money, to the total value of
£3 19S•
The
Police took possession of the machine, and when it
had dried, a number of finger-prints, which were in such a
position as to indicate that they were not made by persons
handling it in a normal way, were photographed.
When the information was circulated, it chanced that two
constables of the Chippenham Division had attended a Police
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