The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1900-05-03
CLEVER NET THIEVES.
How Worthless Net Is Transformed
Into Valuable One In q Few
Weeks Time.

The police OF any river or seaport
city VIII readily say that the most
difficult OF all criminals to catch is
the water thlef-that is. the man who
steals from boats and barges on the
river or from stores and warehouses
on It's banks.
Astoria Is no exception 10 the rule
In respect TO water thieves. and II is
during the fishing season they ply their
vocation most. The theft OF a .lshing
boat. with Its contents, is OF common
occurrence but the thief seldom gets
far with his plunder, being forced TO
abandon the boat and content himself
with such OF the supplies as he can
easily carry away and still more cas-
lily hide.
But the stealing OF fish net. in
whole or In part-and II is seldom an
entire net is taken-ls q very different
matter. Not only is the loss heavier
upon the party robbed but. once clear
OF the police, II is almost impossible
to fasten the theft OF net upon the
thief, even though the pieces be
found Ia his possession. The Fisher
mems Union has long had standing
reward OF $50 for the arrest and con-
vlction Of net thieves and while several
arrests have been made. in nearly
every case the thief has escaped pun
lshment because OF the failure to
identify the net found in his posses
sion as the one stolen, in whole or
in part.
In British Columbia each fisherman,
when he takes out a license, gives
minute description Of his nets, which
is recorded. He describes the meshes,
their number, how the knots are tied.
the size OF the net. and II he has any
way Of privately marking his net
througout, 1t is recorded. This en-
ables him, In case of the theft Of the
whole or a part Of his net, to trace
and Identify II. no matter where 1t is
found. even II woven in with portions
OF other nets in order to make one
complete net.
Some such law as the net law Of
British Columbia" said the secretary
of the Flshermen's Union. will have
to be adopted In oregon. A good net
is worth $500, in coin. A fisherman
takes n new net out on dark. thick
night and sets It, By-and-by he and
his partner start to run over the net
and by the time they reach about one
third OF Its length they discover they
have been robbed.
"The thief has rowed up quietly and
cut one-half the net out Of the CEN
ter. hauled the stolen portion into his
boat and rowed away, No one saw
him come or go and the only recourse
is to look for the stolen portion Of the
net Now, the thief may have cut
pieces out Of half dozen nets that
same night or, what is more common,
he had pieces Of net previously stolen
hidden away at home. AS soon as he
gets enough pieces of like mesh, the
thief proceeds to knit the stolen frag-
ments together and 10 and behold,
when the police run him down they
find complete net in his possession.
while morally certain that the net
is made up of stolen pieces cut from
nets, none of the victims can positive
ly identify the portion Of their net that
was taken. now that 1t has been skill
fully interviewer with other pieces,
and the result is the thief escapes pun
ishment.
why" laughed the secretary, I'VE
! know Of three or four men in this