The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-05-12
NIMBLE- FINGERED MEN.
How the Artful Dodgers Get Their
Start in Life.
A Talk With a Detective About Profess
sional Picltpockets-The Various De-
grees of Experiences Tricks to
Which They Resort.

Which They Resort.
"How do professional pickpockets
make start?" asked Star reporter
of detective the other day.
"he begins" answered the detective,
''by robbing small stores or candy
shops; by sneaking into the stores and
robbing, or attempting to rob, the till.
Before he becomes an expert he is
usually picked up by the officers for
petty off'enses. The first time he is ar
rested he probably gets off by paying
small fine. The next time he is sent to
Jail, and then he becomes hardened,
While in prison his associates, or many
of them, are old offenders, and from
them he receives advice and learns a
great deal about professional work.
When he is released from Jail he thinks
he knows as much as any of the older
members of the profession, and he then
makes start toward the penitentiarv.
Then he will follow ladies about. He
will pick out those who carelessly carry
their purses in their outer pockets or
on their arms.
I'm short time" the detective went
on, che joins a gang or mob Those
gangs usually are composed of four
or five men known as stalls and
wires or tools The 'stall' is the
man who gets the mark or victim in
position, He is usually the heaviest
man in the gang When his work is
finished and the victim is in position
the wire comes along and works from
behind the victim or the STALL In
ninety-nine cases out of every hundred
where the victim discovers that he has
been robbed he seihes the stall and
hands him over to the police. OF course
when the STALL is searched nothing is
found on him, for he has never had the
'swag' in his possession. The victim
grabs the STALL because he can not
see the wire After the robbery is
committed the proceeds are turned over
to confederate, who goes to conven-
lent place, cleans or empties the purse
and then disposes of it, keeping only
such portions of its contents as can not
be easily identified. A favorite thing
with the pickpockets is to take a gang
of five or six and start out on the day
of some celebration to 90 through street
cars. Two of them will enter car at
Il designated point and pick out a
mark Then as the car passes along
the street the others enter it, and the
first two give the signal and step Off the
car. When the mark attempts to oet
off the car he is hustled at the door bv
members of the gang while the wire
goes through him. If they have a
chance several pocket books are secured
before they leave the car, and in this
way they frequently make Il good haul.
Another favorite place for a mob to
work." continued the detective, sis at
railroad junction. A swell mob of
first-class men will meet. lay their plans
and then 60 to the junction. Each will
go alone and take his position. When
the car arrives n rush is made, and pas
sengers are prevented for a minute or
two from getting off the car. While
pressing past each other the wire gets
in his work, and when the car on the
crossing road moves off one or more of
its passengers discover the loss of a
pocket-book. The man who got it is on
a car going in another direction, and
the chances for catching him are very
slim. Some tirst-class workers prefer
to travel alone, and work with news
paper or light overcoat. They will
carry an overcoat on their left arm,
and, when doing job. will throw it
across their right arm, hiding their
hand. These fellows can easily take a
prop, as pin is sometimes called.
Such Il job takes but an instant, and in
very few cases are the thieves caught.
"The pickpocket," continued the de-
tective, ''is in his glory at the country
fair. There is usually large crowd at
such places. A member of the mob
will get into the crowd and cry: Look
out for your pocket-booksp In an in
slant every countryman has his hand
on his pocket-book. This gives the
mob a chance to locate the pocket
books, and saves them the time and
trouble of tanning or feeling about to
locate them. If an attempt is made to