Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-31
TRAPS FOR sHOPLIFTERs.
How the Large New York stores
Guard Against Thieves.

How the Large New York Stores
Guard Against Thieves.
From the New York Herald.
At one of the busiest counters, where are
piled high rich and costly laces, holding
their own against the elbowiug, irritated,
feverish, ceaselessly moving throng. are a
pair CT fashionably dressed women. Both,
perhaps, wear diamonds, but they are not
corspicuously displayed. They are quiet of
demeanor; nothing by look or action would
separate them, so far as the superficial view
would reveal from hundreds of others in
that eddying. clamorous mass.
Evidently of the women is the pur-
chaser, the other merely accompanying her.
They consult over possible purchases. These
completed, they give the direction to the
saleslady. The price is high; they consult
their pocketbooks and discover they have
not sufficient change about them.
please send the goods c. o. d. tomorrow.
1t will be abundant time"
The saleswoman is pleased she bids her
agreeable customers to come again. They
reply with charming smile and are lost
in the crowd. Unnoticed, after them wan
ders pretty. blue-eyed girl. She has been
standing near them, purse in hand, at the
counter, rather wistfully cycling their pur-
chases, wondering, no doubt, IL she shall
have money enough some day to do as they.
Her hair Is golden and hangs pendant in q
plait down her neck. He eyes are big and
blue, with all the innocence of a school
girl. A jaunty sailor hat caps a trim and
attractive figure.
Sharp Eyes Watched Them.
The women from the counter move to-
ward the door. The little girl is not far
behind. If you had looked closely-some-
thing you would have never thought of do
ing-yOu might have seen a sharp, keen
eyed young man, cycling the girl closely. If
you had been an attentive observer you
might have seen this innocent blue-eyed lit
tie girl nod sharply at the two women as
they pass out, then turn on her heel and go
back among the crowd Then you would
have noticed that the sharp-eyed young
man quietly left the store with the two wo-
men. He is fashiorably dressed, idly wears
a cane, has doubtless been making some
purchases himself Half a block away he
taps one of the women on the shoulder.
Madam" he says. half roughly, but po-
Etely. the woman at the lace countrr
would like to see you"
The women look up with establishment.
They are quite sure they have left nothing
but the young man Is urgent. He suggests
that they had better not make a scene He
blandly suggests that it is doubtless all a
mistake, but return they must Otherwise
an officer stands at the corner.
Seeing that there is no escape, the women
return. One of them Is searched in the SUI
perinte ndent's office. A roll of rich laces,
worth probably hundreds of dollars is
found, ingeniousy slowed away in a rear
pocket. Evidently she is an expert. She is
a queen of the shoplfters, and she has run
against one of the sharpest private detec-
tives in the city. He knowing her, she not
being aware of him, he has the advantage.
This particular woman, Nellie Scott, of very
wide and generous notoriety, is now doing
time in Sing Sing. For years she had been
operating against the stores, living like a
woman of wealth and fashion. 1t is gay
life while it lasts, the work Is easy, but al
ways is the day bound to come when she
will feel that tap upon her shoulder, and
know that she is caught.
Just how she was discovered she probably
never knew. Neither do long line of other
shoplfters that have been sent over the
road from a mistaken attempt to work this
store. Neither Nellie Scott nor any of the
rest was ever for a moment conscious of the
innocent looking but watchful eyes intently
laid upon them by that pretty GIRL with the
sailor hat and the golden hair, bound in a
school girls plat.
This Is one of the many means adopted by
the great dry goods stores of the city to
protect themselves from the plundering
shoplfters which prey upon them. 1t is a
very popular means, because 1t is one of the
surest and most effective, and at the same
time the patrons Of the store are not an
noyed by the palpable presence of a detec-
tive. They do not feel under any Irritating
espionage, and the shoplifters never know
when these soft, innocent looking paws are
TO pounce upon them.