The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-11-05
GIRL THIEF-CATCHERS.
How the Big Stores Detect Won-
On Who Steal
An Interesting Descriptien.of the Meth.
eds Of Feminine shopliftcrs-The
Painful Ordeal OF Searching
the Cu1prits.

COS OF remlnth0 SnOpl1ttCre-Tho
Painful Ordeal of Searching
the Culprits.
"Shopliftingp Yes, there's hardly q
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
big Twenty-third street store where
women buy everything they need. from
shoes to hairpins.
TITS always disagreeable duty for
man to have to accuse woman of any
SIM" continued the young gentleman,
who knows all about woman and her
clothes, to a New York Journal report
er, Every disagreeable. Yet we caLnot
trust the task to a female employe.
Why? Oh, for a variety Of reasons. prin-
cipally because women will brazen out
q thing before woman to the bitter
end, and then because one cannot trust
any woman to take abuse from another
Of her sex without resenting II, losing
her head, and either mussing up tho
whole job, or in rare cases getting into
Q 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
1y, 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 very good
reason. If we kept lot of male de-
tectives around we should have one
hundred complaints 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 bit of lace in
Q moment"
use girls, then, eh?"
"Yes; we have bright girls for the
watching and 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 officiate
as a sort of non-oflicial Judge on the
case, and I'd rather do anything else in
the world. Of course. we could hand
every shopliftcr caught over to the po-
lice, but we rarely adopt such 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
never come into the store again"
"Do you make many mistakes?"
1--WE never make the mistake Of &C
cusing shoplifter wrongfully, because
we never have a woman brought up on
that charge unless she has actually
been seen to take something. A wrong
would be very serious af-
fair, and the firm had much better lose
q lot Of property year by theft than
to have a mistake made in that direc-
lion. I've been here five years in my
present position, and never had to talk
10 lady whose ideas Of the ownership
If property were lax in all that time un-
less the eliminating evidence was un-
"How do you draw the line between
and real larceny?"
"It's hard to draw the line between
and q real lsrcenous de-
sign where women arc concerned. I've
been a constant student Of the mental
conditions and methods of the fair sex
'or years, and instead of becoming hard
.ned, I've developed great deal of
for women who steal.
"We all know, of course, that woman,
n the aggregate, is creature OF i'm
pulse and intuition. Well, widen the
natural belief Of man bit, and it's al
most impossible to decide as to the line
IT demarkation between kleptomania
md larceny. Women's ideas of right
md wrong and all that haven't fixed
boundaries drawn by the mathematical
y correct hand Of reason like a mans. |
"1s 1t the vicious who steal most?"
my ideas are borne out by the statis-
les OF our larceny court. 1t isn't un-
vicious and generally de-
'raved women who do the greatest
mount of stealing from store counters.
It's the refined, reasonably-well raised,
wen the luxuriously- bred but financial
y embarrassed ladies who. once covet-
ng an article of dress, must be careful
y watched for their own sakes as well |
IS ours. OF course we aren't in the
business as ethical and moral reformers
olely, and we watch 'em more for our
'wn than for their sakes."
"What do they do when detectedP"
"Oh, they generally get indignant
md try to leave the place in an as
umed huff but when they are in
ormed that an interview is necessary
S an alternative to an immediate ar
est, they always submit. The inter
lew is generally an ordeal for all pres
mt. It's only a question of time when
he accused is dissolved in tears and
ysteria, ordinarily, but there are often
lot OF preliminaries to be gone through
which man with experience can abb
reviate by what the surgeons would
erm heroic treatment at the incep-
ion.'
Most of the shoplifters I hava evar