Sergeant Toomey Captures Alleged Thief in Emerson

A small, middle aged man from Allston, Raymond S. McFarland, was last night booked at Cambridge Police Headquarters on suspicion of stealing money from pocketbooks and coats in Emerson Hall.

McFarland was trapped in Emerson yesterday afternoon, after two female secretaries had tipped off the police that a suspicious man was loitering in the building.

Emerson had been under police surveillance for the past three weeks in an effort to find the man who had been responsible for thefts of varying amounts, thefts which extended over a ten month period.

The secretaries phoned the University and Cambridge police and Sergeant Toomey of the Yard force was the first man to arrive on the scene. As he entered the building McFarland saw him and fled to the men's room on the bottom floor. Toomey cornered him there.

A careful search by Toomey and other policemen disclosed an expensive grey coat in one of the men's room stalls. The owner, Nieman Fellow Sylvan Meyer, was found an hour later. He claimed that he had left the coat on the top floor and had no knowledge of how it got to the men's room.

McFarland, under questioning last night, claimed to be an investigator for a law firm, but would give no further information.