Omaha daily bee., 1900-11-15
PAIR OF ECCENTRIC THIEVES
Two Omaha Characters Who Give the
Police Much Employment Dur
ing Dull Times.

There is an odd circumstance in connoc-
tion with the police department and the
petty criminals OF the city II is that the
blucoats have so well held I'm check crime
OF the smaller sort that new offenders
are I'm the minority and most Of the con
spicuous offenses against municipal laws
are by the old timers persons well known
TO the custodiaus Of the peace Veterans
on the force say they can't remember "A
time when the city was so free from law
lessncss Of all kinds as It is at present.
There is stil much wrongdoing. though
they say. and about II there is this re-
markable feature, that 1t is almost alto
gether by the same persons, week after
week.
Some of the older members OF the police
department who are close observers have
made the discovery that there are many
eccentric thieves in the city and that It
is they who compose largely the commune
which appears before the police Judge
every morning to explain and make amends
for civil transgressions.
IT'S dollars to dry bread that there
isn't a Quoerer individual in the United
States than Old Man Lcisenberg, who
spends more than half his life in jail
CELL observed one OF the sergeants not
many nights ago THAT old codger takes
Just as naturally TO thleving as spaniel
TO water. He's sure to die in "A Jail cell
serving a sentence for petit larceny. And
there's a whole lot more just like him.
We's got the crime Suppression business
down so fine Just now that what the city
needs Is a reform school to teach the old
timers TO be coed and there would be little
use for the jail.
But to get back to Leisenberg, Police
court records don't tell Of a more in
genious thief than he. A few weeks ago
the old man ran short OF breakfast money
end stole the mattress off a hotel bed
with a dozen people looking on and
pawned it for few pieces of small change.
He went into one OF those moderate priced
lodging houses and got n room for the
night. An hour or two later the chamber
maid saw him going through the hall with
mattress on his back He explained
that he was taking 1t to a room below AT
the request Of the clerk. To the clerk in
the Office the old man said he was taking
the mattress out TO be sewed up. the cham,
bermaid having instructed him TO do so.
Well, he took the mattress around the
corner to a secondhand man. saying that
he bought II Of the hotel proprietor and
succeeded in raising 81 on It. That was
nerve wasn't It?
THE same man answered an advertise.
ment in the newspapers and hired out to
contractor as a teamster The first thing
In the morning when he went to work the
employer sent him out with team. Lesen-
berg drove into an alley back OF a second
hand store, tied the team to telegraph
pole with a piece Of stout twine took off
the harness and sold II to the dealer IN
old leather for drink money. He hired out
once as "A driver on coal wagon and sold
the schoop shovel in the first pawnshop
he passed. Leisenberg's strong specially
is filching things left in wagons and car,
riages Shawls, coats, bundles, any old
thing that one leaves behind for moment
while stepping into q store or a dwelling
is prey to Leisenberg.
Mary Sullivan is another individual not
much less singular than Leisenberg Mary's
long suit Is breaking into dwellings on
Sunday nights. Her method is to take a
rock and break out a window while all
the household members are at church and
ransack the premises. Mary mas gone so
far as to take carpets off floor. Lace
curtains in profusion were found In her
hut when the police raided Il last month.
once she carried away a sewing machine,
but wash boilers and kettles and kitcheh
implements with brass bottoms are her
specially. The police have got the new
aspirants for careers OF crime pretty well
scared out. II we could only reform tho
old offenders our working hours would be
few"