The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-27 00:00:00

SINGULAR THEFTS BY A LADY IN GLASGOW.

(From the Scottish Standard)
Within the last few days a number of very clever and auda-
cious thefts have been perpetrated in Glasgow, under cir-
cumstances which lead to the conclusion that they have been
committed by a female, who, on the supposition that she is
the guilty party, must have carried into the execution of them
more than an average share of impudence and fashionable
address. The following, so far as we can learn, are the par-
ticulars of this singular affair :—lt appears that on Thursday
last a lady drove up to one of the most respectable hotels in
a noddy, having just arrived, as she intimated, by one of the
coaches from Edinburgh. She asked for a Sir John Fer-
guson, seemed disappointed that he was not at the inn to
meet ber, and having taken a bed-room and parlour, re-
mained all night. - She made some inquiries in reference to
the residence of Lord Kelburne, to whom, she said, she was
about to pay a visit ; and on Friday left the hotel, and entered
one of the Paisley railway omnibuses, with the view, as she
stated, of going by railway, information having been given
her, she alleged, that that was the best mode of reaching his
lordship's residence. Here it is necessary to state, that on
Friday morning, a gentleman who had slept in the inn disco-
vered that, during the night, his pocket bad been picked of
£l2, £7 of which were in notes, and £5 in sovereigns. The
notes had been wrapped up in a £2O note; but, as the latter
had a mark upon it which might have led to detection, it was
left behind by the thief; and in the place of the five sove-
reigns some silver was substituted. In a room on the flat
above another gentleman had a £5 Bank of England note
taken from his pocket, and three sovereigns from a purse,
into which, in lieu of the sovereigns, three shillings bad been
dropped. These mysterious thefts created " quite a sensa-
tion" in the hotel ; no one dreamed of blaming a lady, who
expected a visit from Sir John Ferguson, and was on terms
of intimacy with my Lord Kelburne—the gentlemen who
slept in the inn could not for a moment be supposed guilty of
theft—and, as we believe is very usual under similar circum-
stances, suspicion began to be directed towards one or other
of the servants. Towards the evening, information of the
thefts was left at the police-office, and Capt. Miller made a
personal investigation into the matter. Having ascertained
that a lady had slept in the inn, and finding from inquiry that
this very lady, who was supposed to be on a visit at Lord
Kelburne's, had taken up her residence at another respect-
able inn in the city, he began to see his way somewhat clearly
in the affair. He ascertained that the lady had gone to the
second hotel about two hours after she left the first one, so
that it was rendered doubtful whether she had gone by the
railway at all, as she had stated to be her intention, and, at
all events, certain that she had not paid a visit to Lord Kel-
burne. At the second hotel she had also ordered a parlour
and bed-room, and intimated her intention of remaining over
the night she sent one of the waiters to take an inside seat in
the six o'clock morning coach to Edinburgh, and directed a
noddy to be in waiting to convey her to the coach at a
proper hour on Saturday morning. Having ascertained
these particulars, Captain Miller adopted two precautionary
measures to secure the detection and apprehension of the
lady, should she turn out to be the thief. He wrote to the
Edinburgh police, intimating that a female might probably
arrive in that city by the six o'clock coach, strongly suspected
of theft, and requesting them to pay her a little attention.
His next precaution was, to place one of his officers in a bed-
room adjoining that of the lady, with injunctions to watch
her motions ; and here begins a part of our story, which can-
not fail to excite the amusement of our readers. About 11
o'clock at night the police-officer went to bed, accompanied
by one of the innkeeper's sons, both having received strict
injunctions from the superintendent not to sleep, but wake-
fully to be on their guards ready to detect the lady in the ad-
joing bed-room, should she during the night, intrude for the
purpose of inquiring too curiously into the contents of their
pockets. The watchers obeyed most religiously these in-
structions till about half-past three or four in the morning,
when wearied with their long vigils, they both fell into a pro-
found sleep. At half-past six o'clock they awoke ; the lady
was half an hour gone; and, on the policeman drawing to
his unmentionables, he discovered, to his astonishment and
mortification, that, while he slept he had been robbed of £2.
The innkeeper's son, on dipping into his pockets, made a
similar discovery ; he had been robbed of all the money they
contained, which, fortunately, was only a few shillings. In
another room, a gentleman had had £7 in notes abstracted
from bis pocket-book, and their place supplied by a number of
small papers, accounts, and the like, which had been taken
from one of his pockets ' • some loose silver had likewise been
stolen from the table of another bed-room, on which,. how-
ever, a gold watch was allowed to remain untouched. The
female, who has been already so often referred 10, left the
hotel shortly before six in a noddy, having previously
partaken of a glass of wine, and, at six precisely, left town by
the Edinburgh coach. The police-officer thus awoke half an
hour too late to find the lady, while his misbehaviour had en-
tirely defeated the admirable scheme of the superintendent
for detecting the thief. As soon as practicable, the female
was followed to Edinburgh; but it appears that, though the
Edinburgh police, in terms of Captain Miller's letter, were
waiting at the coach by which she arrived, she escaped their
hands—their suspicion having fallen upon another passen-
ger : and, so far as we have heard, she has not yet been ap-
prehended. In all likelihood, however, she will soon be dis-
covered..
APPREHENSION OF THE " LADY THIEF."

The Glasgow Courier contains the following account of
the capture of this extraordinary "lady thief :"
" In our last page will be found the particulars connected
with one of the most extraordinary cases which it has been
our lot to notice. The lady who forms the subject of the
narrative, it was feared, had totally eluded the well-directed
efforts of the Glasgow and Edinburgh police, but from a com-
munication received by Captain Miller yesterday, it appears
that a female calling herself Jane Petrisci, or Harris, and
answering the description given to the officers, was appre-
hended in a lodging-house in Edinburgh about two o'clock
that morning, with about £5O in notes and sovereigns in her
possession. The Glasgow officer, though he somewhat bun-
gled the business by falling asleep, along with the innkeeper's
son who undertook to keep watch in the same recumbent
posture, had the precaution to mark the money which he put
into his pocket as a bait to the thief, and his quondam bed-
fellow did the same. This turns out a most fortunate matter,
foi among the money found in the possession of Jane Petrisci,
or Harris, were the identical notes, and the one shilling and
sixpence which were marked. The arrival of the prisoner is
expected to-day, when she will be examined. She is said to
be a woman about thirty years of age, of exquisite manners
and lady-like appearance. The superintendents of police
both in Glasgow and Edinburgh deserve the highest com-
mendations for having succeeded in well-concerted measures
for the detection of such a dangerous and most impudent
system of thieving. We should think that when the circum-
stances are made known, gentlemen will take the precaution,
even in the most respectable hotels, to lock their bed-room
doors when they retire to rest."
In addition to the above particulars, we learn that the " lady
thief" was traced, through the medium of the porter employed
in carrying her luggage, to a respectable house in Calton-
street, Edinburgh. She was here disco4red by the lady in
the act of taking wine with a gentleman, on whom were found
£l2, but who was not detained. The " lady thief," although
found in possession of the marked money, denied all know-
ledge of the affair when apprehended.