Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-26
SHIPPING DETECTIVES.
They Shadow Conslgnmentas Of Goods
from the Thine Thay Leave the
store Until They Roach the
Ell Depot.

"
torncy the other day the head of one OF
the largest Wholesale dry goods houses
In the city had occasion to refer casu-
ally to the various classes Of men
whom his firm found It necessary to
employ, says the Chicago Herald.
After citing statesmen, various kinds Of
clerks, credit man, cashier, book
keepers, etc, the head Of the firm add.
ed, s'and shipping detectives
Sand what?" asked the attorney, as
though he had misunderstood the term.
shipping detectives replied the
client.
'tWen, that's q new one on me!'' It
was also new to the Herald representa-
tive, who was all attention.
there's nothing strange about that"
said the wholesaler, ''for the shipping
detective is quite q new thing. Few
houses-only the larger ones-havet
cause to employ them, and the house
that does usually keeps the matter as
much of a secret as the condition of its
bank account"
"What are his duties?"
principally to shadow consignments
Of goods from the time they leave the
store until they reach the freight depot
and the railway company becomes re-
sponsible for them by accepting and re-
ceipting for them"
ga sort of Watchdog on the team
ster2''
"Only in part. You see we ship n
great many small boxes which fire.
quently contain hundreds of dollars
worth of goods, such as fine silks,
satins, rich trimmings, etc. Often the
wagon I'm which thesa hoxes laave the
ztore nasses THROUGH allevs or narrow
and unfreouented side streets. mead
not remind Won that there are scores of
of very bold. dexterous thieves in Chi
caro. as well as other biz cities.-who
are constantly ON the lookout for op-
v1ortunities to min ANYTHING, .whatever
that can he turned into money! MANY
erxnersiveI exneriencea with these neo-
ole have demoustrated that they keen
themselves remarkably we'll informed
"a to the more valuable shipments made
bv wholesale houses. In former wears
IL was an almost daifv occurrences for
wholesale houses--partic1,larlv those In
our line-to have small boxes of fine
Goods boldly taken from the wagons in
broad DAYLIGHT while going the COM
uaratively small distance necessary
70 be covered between store and freight
denot. Only a few wears ago our firm had
three such boxes stolen at a clin from
one Of onr WAGONS At, two o'clock in the
afternoon. while thew were being, carried
less than four SQUARES. Bv a descrip-
ton which was furnished of the thieves
bv a bootblack we caught one of the
three bold laddies and sent him over
the road, but we never recovered the
goods, which were valued at over three
thousand dollars. This was but one of
several such losses. Now we have men
that do little else than keep their eve
on goods from the moment they are
placed on the transfer wagons until
they are safe within the responsibility
of the railroad company. And frequent
| " it keeps them lodging very lively,
| for they, of course, follow the wagons
afoot. going along the sidewalk, and
keeping a sufficient distance in the rear
40 as not to attract attention.
Another duty Of the shipping de-
tective-for whom some houses have a
different name-is to prevent, so far as
possible, the theft of consignment adj
dresses. There are firms doing bust
ness in this and, / suppose, other cities,
who employ men to lay in wait at vari-
Gus times and places and copy the adj
dresses on boxes Of goods which other
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