San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-11-07
LONDON'S OMNIBUS THIEVES.
Their Work SO Profitable That They
Ran \ Line OF Pirate Vehicles.

Ran \ Line OF Pirate Vehicles.
One Of the happiest hunting grounds
for pickpOcket is London omnibus.
People have been warned of this over
and over again; notices are kept con-
tinually pasted on the doors and win
dOws of the bus; conductors watch
with keen and suspicious eyes doubt
bul-lOoking passengers, and yet all
this energy seems to make little or no
difference TO the pickpOcketS. They
seem. TO thrive almost as we'll as if
'busses were provided for their spec
ial edificatiOn, and there are quite
large number of thieves in London
who make living by working almost
entirely in public conveyances.
One gang in particular was broken
up recently. 1t consisted of about 23
men, and was knOwn-On account of
practice they had of singing a hook
ed stick over their arms-aS the
Crooked Stick Gang" 1t was start
ed in 1893, and the originator was an
exceedingly clever thief with whom
the police desired further acGuain-
lance. He started this brilliant idea
by giving an ''at home" in the Seven
Dials. He hired a room in a public
house for the purpose las he informed
the landlord of holding a friendly
lead" but as a matter of fact the peO-
pie who turned up were one and all
practiced pickpockets, and the out
come of this meeting was the fOrma-
ton of sort of Thieves Union. the
object of which was to pray upon I'M
wary people who travel in omnibusses
and trans and public cOnveyances
generally. The members worked in
pairs. the one thieving and the other
watching that he had not cheated his
fellows.
This system worked remarkably
well for a time. Each pair of thieves
had a number of ingenious DISCUSSES;
on different occasions they exchanged
routes; and as they kept a particular
record of their proceedings. and were
careful not to work too often in the
same district, they were for a long
time undetected At the end of each
day they met at a public house. pre-,
viOusly appointed, for dividing their
SpOilS: and fair ieda of the profits
of the concern will be gathered from
the fact that they have divided as
much as $500 on a single day.
After a time the conductors of the
buses especially in principal thor
oughfares like Piccadilly) got TO know
the gang. and became STRANGELY short
sighted when one of them haileC
them from the pavement. They treat
ed them with an indifference that wal
calling. and their behavior SCENE,
especially brutal when the passenge
with the crooked stick happened t
be an old. white-haired gentleman
with gold eyeglasses.
When at last business became s.
involved that the directors of the ON
nibus companies began to employ de
tectives TO watch them, the gan
thought il advisable to run buses o
their own. and they did. They stan
ted a number of pirate busses. and a
inst somewhere about this time tn
company buses raised their fares the
easily got a large number of passeT
gers by retaining the old prices. The
were very careful, however, to stO
only for well7dreSSed and respectful
looking people. and 1t was strang
thing if a passenger did not mis-
something before she or he reache
the end of their journey.
Each person who entered the 'br
was. of course. most carefully watcl
ed. The cry "All fares" gave IL
thieves a clew to the whereabouts
the purses. and short time after the
we're replaced they were skillfully r
moved by the working members
one of the gang who manipulate
matters inside the bus was a mo
dexterous Uickpocket. 1t was h
boast that he could extract a pur'
with a pair of sugar tongs, and he hi
been known to steal one. remove q
the money, and then quietly, repla'
il in the owners pocket without e.
citing the slightest suspicion.
For awhile these pirate 'busses sut
ceeded even better than the others
On some occasion a single bus ha