The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-12-03
GIRL THIEF-CATCHERS.
How the Big Stores Detect Wom-
en- Who Steal
An Interesting Description of the Meth
DDS of Feminine shoplifters--Tbe
Painful Ordeal OF Searching
the Culprits.

"Shoplifting? Yes, there's hardly a
day passes that don't have one or two
cases of it to look after, and, believe
me, it's the most disagreeable function
of position like mine" So said the
youngest partner and floor manager OF
a big Twenty-third street store where
women buy everything they need, from
shoes to hairpins.
''It's always disagreeable duty for
man to have to accuse a woman OF any
SIM" continued the young gentleman,
who knows all about woman and her
clothes, to New York journal report
err, syery disagreeable. Yet we cannot
trust the task to a female employe.
Why? Oh, for variety of reasons, prin-
cipally because women Will brazen out
a thing before q woman to the bitter
end, and then because one cannot trust
any woman to take abuse from another
of her sex without resenting it, losing
her head, and either missing up the
whole job, or in rare cases getting into
personal encounter.
''Of course we have women watching
our customers and our goods, plenty of
them. Every saleslady is a sort of ex-
officio policeman in big store, natural
ly, but then we have others who do
nothing else than keep their eyes on
the ladies who trade with us. Why
don't we use men? For q very good
reason. If we kept lot of male de-
tectives around we should have one
hundred complaints a day about men
staring at ladies' or following them, or
something of the sort, and most of them
would come from the fair ones who, if
they got a chance, would purloin half
dozen pairs of gloves or a bit of lace in
moment"
Use girls, then, eh?'
''Yes; we have bright girls for the
watching and a good strong, healthy,
woman to search such ladies as object
to exhibiting the contents of their par
GELS and pocketbooks when called into
the star chamber. But always ofliciate
as sort of non-oficial judge ON the
case, and I'd rather do anything else i'm
the world. OF course, we could hand
every shoplifter caught over to the po-
lice, but we rarely adopt such a course.
1t would occasion too much publicity
and possibly other disagreeable re-
suits"
'Why?"
Because most women who steal
aren't really responsible, and because
when confronted with evidence abso-
lutte of their guilt, they'll always re-
store the purloined goods, weep and
meyer come into the store again"
an L.
1--WE never make the mistake of ac-
cusing shoplifter wrongfully, because
we never have woman brought up on
that charge unless she has actually
been seen to take something. A wrong
accusation would be a very serious af-
fair, and the firm had much better lose
\ lot of property year by theft than
to have a mistake made in that direc-
ton. I've been here five years in my
present position, and never had to talk
to lady whose ideas of the ownership
of property were lax in all that time un-
less the eliminating evidence was un-
mistaksble."
Glow do you draw the line between
kleptomania and real larceny"
''Its hard to draw the line between
kleptomania and real larcenous de-
sign where women are concerned. I've
been a constant student Of the mental
conditions and methods Of the fair sex
for years, and irsteadOf becoming hard
ened, I've developed a great deal OF
sympathy for women who steal.
''We all know, ofcourse, that woman,
in the aggregate, il a creature Of i'm
pulse and intuition. Wen, widen the
natural belief Of man bit, and It's al
most impossible TO decide az to the line
Of demariSation between kleptomania
and larceny. Women's ideas Of right
and wrong and all that haven't fixed
boundaries drawn by the mathematical
ly correct hand Of reason like a mans
us it the vicious who steal most?"
my ideas are borne out by the stats
tics of our larceny court. 1t isn't un
educated, vicious and generally ~
PRAYED women who do the greatest
amount Of stealing from store counters
It's the refined, reasonably-well raised
even the luxuriously-bre but financial
ly embarrassed ladies who. once covct
ing an article of dress, must be careful
ly watched for their own salxes as wei
as ours. Of course we aren't in the
business as ethical and moral reformer
solely, and we watch 'em more for oui
own than for their sakes."
What do they do when detected?"
"Oh, they generally get indignan
and try to leave the place in an as
sumed huff but when they are in
formed that an interview is necessar,
as an alternative to an immediate ar
rest, they always submit. The inter
view is generally an ordeal for all pres
ent. It's only question of time whel
the accused is dissolved in tears ant
hysteria, ordinarily, but there are Otter
lot OF preliminaries to be gone through
which man with experience can all
breviate by what the surgeons woul,
term heroic treatment at the incep
ton
Most Of the shoplifters have eve
had interviews with deny the whole ac
cusation first, threaten, accuse the ac
cuser, make a row when search i
suggested, and finally go all to piece
at the mention of the police, produc
the stolen goods, cry, get hysteriea
and eventually end up by offering any
thing within their means if we oni
won't give publicity to the affair. {
course we don't want to any MOI
than they don't want us to. Keepin
track of our own property is as much
part Of our business as buying an
selling at a profit; but the ladies don
know that, and unless the fair culpr
be one who has been detected befoi
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