ODYSSEY OF A YOUNG PARISIAN MECHANIC

Mr. Fayet, a police officer in Saint-Lô, saw on Friday morning on the Champ de Mars a young man aged 17, a mechanic in Paris, named Adrien Bourdon, who was looking for work. He questioned him, took him to the police station and soon Brigadier Sorgniard was convinced that he was in the presence of the young man suspected of stealing a donkey and a carriage and that the gendarmerie brigades of Saint-L6, Canisy, Marigny and Cérisy-la-Salle were looking for.

Taken to the brigade office on Rue du Neufbourg, the young man was handed over to Mr. Girault, a gendarme in St-Lo, who was in charge of the investigation. He confessed to the two thefts he was accused of.

Having left Paris on September 6, Adrien Bourdon, who is not happy with his parents (he is running away eight times), had boarded the Paris-Invalides station to come to Saint-Lo, where he got off on Sunday around 1 a.m. He wandered around the station, then went to spend the night in Saint-Gilles. On Monday he reached Montpinchon and around 2 p.m., he seized a donkey belonging to Mr. Emmanuel Savary, on which he saddled up to head back to Saint-Lô. On the way, after having traveled several kilometers, he abandoned his mount.

Marcel Bourdon had returned to Saint-Lô. He was looking for employment at the Houyvet Establishments, and he was due to come and get the answer in the afternoon. But around 1 p.m., having noticed a horse-drawn carriage parked in the yard of Mr. Pellé, a restaurateur, he got into the vehicle and set off in the direction of Candol. He continued on his way and abandoned the carriage at Quibou. He unharnessed the horse, got into the saddle and reached Carantilly. In this locality, he abandoned the horse and in small groups took the road back to Saint-Lo. He spent Wednesday night in an abandoned carriage near Cando and wandered about at random all day Thursday.

He was taken Friday morning by the gendarmerie before the public prosecutor, who ordered him to be remanded in custody pending his return to his family.