For some time past the police authorities have been receiving numerous intimations of thefts from back greens and larders, a species of theft not easy of detection, being generally committed after dusk, and in localities to which the constables have no access. Every exertion has been used by the officers of police to discover the depredators, which have, fortunately, been crowned with success. It appears that on Monday last those active officers James M’Levie and John Laidlaw, in the course of their walks called at a house in the College Wynd, where they took possession of upwards of forty articles of men and women’s wearing apparel, part of which has been identified as articles stolen within the last four or five weeks from different back greens throughout the town. In following out his inquiry, M’Levie took into custody, on Wednesday, parties named William Torrance and Elizabeth M’Redie, the latter of whom was wearing a gown which was stolen from a back green in Great King Street, and a pair of stockings which were stolen from a back green in Athole Crescent. Torrance, who has been already convicted, has, it is understood, been identified as the party who took the various articles to the house in College Wynd. M’Redie and he were brought before the police bar on Thursday, and remitted to the Sheriff for examination. Several of the articles found in the house in College Wynd have not yet been identified.

Caledonian Mercury Monday,  June 15, 1840