The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-19
WAYS OF SHOPL|fTERS
The Golden Days of the Light
Fingered Gentry.
EXPERTS AT THIEvING
Emboldened by Success at First They
Grow Reckless and he Major
ity OF Them Are Finally
Caught.

The holiday season. the haying time
Of the shoplifter. is at hand. and the
merchants who have gone to great ex-
pense in advertising and nfn pains
to display their goods n wares artis-
tically in order to attract the public,
will be put to a great deal OF annoy
ance the coming week by h light fin
gered women. and sometimes men. but
more generally the former. who always
take advantage Of the crowded seasons
in the stores to lay in a supply Of things
needful. as well as for profit. without
paying for them. There is always more
or less shoplifting going on. but 1t Is
during the week before Christmas when
every store is crowded and the clerks
engaged that the shoplifters apply
themselves most diligently and get in
their work to the best advantage.
Some of these women are daring to
the limit, and will steal almost from
in under the very eyes OF a clerk with
out being caught. A few are s~ingularly
successful. but the great majority. en-
boldened by their success, get caught,
and IL Is due more to this element of
human nature that the storekeepers do
not suffer more than they do. than to
anything else. Among some of the wo-
men who carry on the business of shop
lifting are many, whose identity. IL
known, would shock the better classes
of the community, because of the posi-
tions they occupy in society. Women
with no possible motive for stealing,
who could well afford to buy and pay a
handsome price for anything they
might need or might wish to bestow
- 49, ~. f.A
quently a~pprehended in the act of pill
fering as women in the lower walks.
When caught they are Of course KEEP
tomaniacs. but just the same, they are
actuated by the anne motive as the
professional shoplifter, an inherent in
clination to profit at another's expense.
OF course the wealthy ones are not Of
ten found selling what they steal, like
the professional, but there can be very
little difference in the motives of the
two.
The professional shoplifter is an in
genious creature. h generally wears
a roomy cloak. under which she can
tuck a wrap or other article of mer-
chandise with much greater ease than
one might imagine while apparently
only looking over the stock. Then she
retires TO a toilet room generally, where
whatever she has succeeded in getting
away with is fastened underneath her
SklftS, winch are mdue1 TOT the PURPOSE
In one instance hat is recalled. a shop
litter was caught in one Of the locaI
stores. and when searched was found
to have slowed away under her outer
garments goods, which when laid in q
pile, looked enough to fill a fair sized
dry goods box. Their value was up
wards of $500. for only the highest
priced articles had been taken, a fact
which illustrates the shrewdness and
facility with which the professional
shoplifter can pick out the best quality
of goods.
The first shoplifters of the Christmas
season to get caught were ~apprehended
in a big Park street store Saturday
night. but the firm declined to prose
ute them or reveal their names. owing
TO their positions. 1t will not be very
extensively that the shopllfter. profes.
sional or otherwise, will profit this
week, however. for a big weeks bust
ness Is anticipated and all the big de
partment stores. which are most IA
vored by the attentions of shoplifters
have provided themselves with a corp;
of detectives and IL will not be possible
to carry on the business very extern
sively without getting caught.