The evening times., 1899-03-07
WOMAN SHOPLIFTER
CAUGHT IN The ACT
Search of Her House Reveals
Quantities of Booty.
Detectives Find Valuable Spoil III
the PaWnshOpS.
PecuIations Relieved to Have Ex-
tended Over a Period of
Four Months.

Detectives Muller and Baur made an i'm
portant arrest yesterday afternoon, when
they took into custody Agnes Askins, a
colored woman, thirty eight years old
She was arrested at Lansburgh's S
store in Seventh Street northwest at
o'clock, and taken in the act of divesting
herself of stolen goods.
The Askins woman, according to her
story, came TO this city from Baltimore
with her two children, about four months
ago. Since that time she has made prac-
tice of visiting the principal downtown de-
partment stores and reaping harvest at
her shoplifting game. Yesterday she Wis
tied Lansburghs, and attracted suspicious
attention. A communication was sent to
detective headquarters and Inspector
Boardman detailed Detectives Muller and
Baur to look into the matter.
AS the detectives entered Lansburgh' S
store their attention was attracted to the
woman, who was throwing bots of hand
some silk in corner. She was immedi
ately questioned, and when closely ex-
amined was found to have concealed be-
meath the long cloak she wore four bolts
of similar character, together with a
pair of shoes and also pair OF white kid
developed afterward that the silk found
on the woman had been taken from Lans-
burgh's, while that which she had thrown
away bad been stolen from Hecht's, as
were also the gloves. The shoes had been
wrongfully obtained at Hahn's.
The detectives searched the house of the
woman at 2l30 Eighth Street northwest
last night, and there found valuable 81 ks,
fabrics, laces, trimming, dry goods, ETC.,
to the value of at least 5000. The goods
were promptly contiscated. and an effort
will be made 10 have them identified. b =
sides the material found, the detectives
discovered several very expensive 81 k
gowns.
These are alleged to have been made ur
from silks taken from the various dry
goods stores in the city.
This morning Detective Baur visited
several pawnshops in search of more oi
the stolen property His quest was abGnd-
antly rewarded and he brought 10 head
quarters several hundred dollars worth ot
silks and fancy trimmings
Samuel Hart. manager for Lausburgf
Bros. and Alex. Kaufman, of Hecht d Co
were summoned TO headquarters to iden-
tify the property OF these firms The DE
tective Office sent a communication to al
of the large dry goods firms in the city tc
send their representatives In order TO OBJ
tain the property belonging to them. The
only firms VINO responded To the invitations
were the two named. They were aston
ished at the quantity of goods the woman
had made away with and identified about
$2Uo worth as their property.
quantity of the stolen goods remains
unidentified, and Inspector Boardman de-
sires all OF the dry goods firms in the
city TO have their representatives call al
headquarters to see if any OF it belongs tc
them.
The Askins woman was not tried in The
Police Court this morning because il is
not known how many merchants have suf-
| fered from her peculations.
Inspector Boardman WAS very much
pleased AT the capture made by Muller
and Baur, and was the first TO congratu.
late his men. He considers the prisoner
one of the cleverest shoplifters in tho
country.
Some of the goods taken from the pawn.
shop this morning had been there for about
two months, showing that the woman haC
commenced operations Immediately after
her arrival in the city. II is believed thai
some of the goods at headquarters belongs
10 S. Kann; Sons & Co., Saks & Co., ant
Kings Palace.