Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-22
THE TOPICAL TALKER.

Leaves From Shopiifters Diary-Tbiev.
ing ms n Fine Art-A Indy Who Wni
Compounded by Her ParasoI.
FROM a curious source two or three incident.
IN the life of professional thief may bt
set down here. They might be termed confes
sions of a shoplifter
Stores in both Allegheny and Pittsburg have
suffered by the depredations of remarkably
skillful thief. who is a woman. She prides her
self on her skill in shoplifting, and it is from
her mouth that the following narrative origi
| nally came:
| ONCE she visited large store in Allegheny
and asked to be shown some expensive
| cloaks. The goods were brought out, and the
stylish-looking shopper took off the jacket she
| wore and tried on a cloak. She was not entirely
| satisfied with it, she said, and the saleswoman
who was waiting upon her went off to another
part of the store to get some more cloaks This
was the thief's chance. She walked away
| leaving her jacket as a token of her regard.
| On the stairs-the cloak department was on the
second fioor-she met one of the owners of the
store.
Have you been waited uponf" he asked
politely.
YES thank you, and am very well satisfied
with this cloak" she replied. and sailed on.
She escaped.
A MOTHER time she visited a shoe store in
Pittsburg. She had small foot and was
proud of it. 1t was no easy matter to please
her the affable young salesman found. The
stock of fine ladies' shoes was ransacked to
suit her taste. 1t was all in vain, for she de-
parted without buying anything. Under her
dress were two more shoes than a woman can
wear. however.
When she looked at the stolen Shoes after
arriving home. she found that they were not
mates. She was very much annoyed; In fact
the discovery took away her appetite for sup
per.
The next afternoon found her in the shoe
store again. THE shoes you sold me the other
day." she said to the salesman, who was not
the one who had tried to suit her fastidious
taste the day before, 'are not mates, and will
you kindly change them?'
The store was crowded-shoplifters seldom
venture into an empty store-and the young
man hurried off at once without further H.
qulry. In another minute he returned with a
pair of shoes properly mated and gave them TO
the supposed customer She did not stay to
give thanks for the gift.
Once only did her confidence, some would
call it impudence, desert her.
She visited a store one morning with the in
AS usual she was very particular about the
quality of the feathers; she would look at none
costing less than Sc or 81 apiece. But although
the best feathers in the store were brought out
for her inspection, she found none that was
long enough. heavy enough or black enough to
suit her. She apologized sweetly to the young
woman behind the counter for the trouble she
had given her. and promised to call again when
he new consignment-which, of course. was
coming next week-should arrive.
AS she was leaving the store she became
aware that she had dropped something and
she looked behind her. A fine ostrich feather
lay on the floor; it had slipped from under the
cloak where the thief had concealed it. or to be
more precise it had not gone into the deep
pocket in the cloak specially designed for its
reception.
She hesitated for second, loath to leave her
prey, and yet afraid to stoop down and take it.
Her assurance was not great enough to carry
her through the second theft, and she left the
store. The feather was not noticed till she bad
gone.
A LADY to whom I told the above true stories
said: "Wen never tried snoplifting as
profession, but the most mortlfying incident 1
remember in my life grew out of an inyolun-
tary theft of mine. had been looking at some
lace handkerchiefs and had purchased one, and
was about to leave the store, when a member of
the firm, touching me on the shoulder, SAID:
Excuse me, maam, but amt you carrying off
a handkerchief? didn't know what he meant,
but held up the package containing the hand
kerchief had bought But he said: oh, no,
see herer and he took from one of the points of
the parasol carried a lace handkerchief.
II should have liked to have gone through to
the cellar, and I know turned the guItiest
f,oFr ,,olr, Nj
both laughed IN a confused sort of way. But
somehow or other could think of nothing else
all day, and 1 felt kind of bound to do a great
deal Of shopping at that store afterward,