Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-10-30
MARTS FOR THIEVES.
JEweLRY FENCES" WHERE PLUM
DER IS BOUGHT AND SOLD.

"ep"tabie stores-How the business
Is Condacted-what Inspector Byrnes
Says About the Subject.
II would like TO know how some Jew
elry store keepers manage to sell their
wares so much cheaper than Others" was
the remark that man heard the other
day IN famous jewelry shop not far
from Union square.
The speaker was pretty young lady
who held in her dainty right hand a
beautiful solitaire diamond ring not less
than carat in weight.
This ring" she continued to the
clerk, You ask $ii0 for. You say there
is an actual market value for pure white
stones OF this weight, ana that no re-
taller can sell it for less and still make a
profit.
How isit, then, she continued, that
at -" and she mentioned the name of
well known place near Madison square.
"they offer me ring with exactly this
size Of stone for $s52 The diamond
was warranted absolutely pure and flaw
less and to weigh carat"
The clerk to whom this question was
put wore "a peculiar smile as he uttered
the two words ''jewelry fences"
Then he went on toexplain to the lady
certain facts that very few New Workers.
know Of, but which have been very ap-
parent to reputable jewelers. for several
years past
ADVANTAGES OF THE ''FENCEs."
There are half dozen large and fash
ionable jewelry stores on Broadway and
the adjoining streets between Tenth
and Thirty-fifth streets which are moth.
ing more than repositories for stolen mr..
ticles of jewelry. These people. of
course, preserve a respectable appear.
ance, even toward their questionable
patrons.
These fashionable fences" do an inn.
mense business, amounting to thousands
of dollars every month. in this way
They have a prestige over the ordinary
pawnshop, for the reason that in nine
cases out of ten they buy the goods out.
right, and pay 20 per cent nearer the
market value than the others. OF
course many of them do a legitimate
pawn business, and in this way also are
enabled to sell their wares at much lower
figures than the square up and down
jeweler.
But the main attraction these places
have for the gentlemanly sneak thief is
the protection they offer against detee-
ton by the police. The latter in hunt
ing for stolen goods seldom if ever in
wade these places, whose great show of
plate glass, hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of stock and outward eff
fusion of responsibility seem to present
perpetual barriers against fraud of any
description.
Said well known jeweler in speaking
Of the matter:
There are scores Of robberies COM
mitted every day by sneak thieves of
which the public never hear at all.
These robberies of jewelry are reported
to the police, but they seldom get into
the newspapers, as it is the policy of the
men at headquarters to place the thieves
on their guard by announcing the fact
that the police are close on their trail"
WHAT INSPECTOR ByRSEs SAYS.
When Inspector Byrnes was asked
about these "fences" he said that while
they may exist he has serious doubts of
their doing regular business of this
kind TO any magnitude.
Several times, in tracing up stolen
jewelry. especially diamonds, he said his
detectives have found the goods in one
of the swell Broadway stores. When
the proprietor in ono instance was asked
how he came by certain pair of dia-
mond solitaire earrings worth between
$500 and 81 900 he said that a well
dressed, middle aged man brought them
to the place. He was attired in deep
mourning, and explained in doleful
voice that his wife had but recently
died and that he had no use at all for
tho earrings. He asked if the proprietor
would purchase them, and on being
answered in the affirmative asked how
much he would give. On being told
800 he handed them over. and on getting
the money left the store and that was
the last seen of him.
This was the proprietor's story. How
much truth there was in it the police
could only conjecture.
In another instance where the police
were hunting for several ladies' rings, a
diamond laeepin and diamond brace
let, they were found in Broadway Jew
elry store few blocks above Madison
square
The person who sold them. according
to the proprietor, was young lady who
had every appearance of responsibility
and refinement. She told the owner that
she was an English woman recently ar.
rived in the country. Her funds had
become exhausted sooner than she ex.
pected. and it was positively necessary
for her TO begin a western journey ut
once II would take her some time to
communicate with her friends at home
to obtain the necessary money. So she
had no other alternative but to realize on
her jewels She was given 81 200 for the
jewels, but although she was particular
10 request the proprietor to keep them.
as she wished to redeem them, she had
never shown up.
The police subsequently discovered that
the woman was under the protection OF
well known thief, who had committed
the burglary. New York journal.