Police in cars with loudspeakers toured Burton-on-Trent, Staffs , yesterday appealing for information after a three-month-old baby had been snatched from her pram. Baby taken as mother shops
Cathy Whetton had been left outside a High Street supermarket while her mother, Mrs Lynette Whetton, 23, of All Saints Road, did her shopping. When the mother returned the pram had disappeared and later it was found empty 150 yards away. Police checked cars and buses and alerted neighbouring police forces.
A spokesman for the supermarket said: ‘Many mothers leave children in prams and pushchairs in the covered precinct outside the shop and nobody ever thinks that something awful like this could happen.’*** *** *** *** ***
At two o’clock in the morning two Hungarians got into a cigar store at Fifteenth Street and Grand Avenue. Drevitts and Boyle drove up from the Fifteenth Street police station in a Ford. The Hungarians were backing their wagon out of an alley. Boyle shot one off the seat of the wagon and one off the wagon box. Drevitts got frightened when he found they were both dead. ‘Hell, Jimmy,’ he said, ‘you oughtn’t to have done it. There’s liable to be a hell of a lot of trouble. ’‘They’re crooks , ain’t they?’ said Boyle. ‘they’re wops , ain’t they? Who the hell is going to make any trouble?’ At two o’clock
‘That’s all right maybe this time,’ said Drevitts, ‘but how did you know they were wops when you bumped them off?’
‘Wops,’ said Boyle, ‘I can tell wops a mile off.’
Exercises
1. Characterize Boyle and Drevitts.
2. Do you think the mother acted irresponsibly? - Write a comment.
3. Do you think Drevitts and Boyle are good police officers? - Write a comment.
4. What features do both texts have in common?
5. In what ways do both texts differ?
6. Which of the texts seems to be a factual text to you, which a fictional text? - Why?