Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1901-05-16
A LONDON CRIMINAL.
THE FOG THIEF AND HOW HE PLIES
HIS PECULIAR TRADE.

THE FOG THIEF AND HOW HE PLIES
HIS PECULIAR TRADE.
He Operates Boldly Both In the City
and on the Thames-Carries OF His
Plunder From Vans and Cabs
Shrouded In the Dense Gloom.
Thousands of thieves long Cor fog
with a great longing. Incredible as it
may seem, property worth tens of thou
sands Of pounds is every year stolen
from vans and lorries alone III London
streets. Quite nine-tenths of this prop
erty disappears during fogs.
The leaders of the fog thief gangs
usually have some little capital to
start with. One of them affects to be
a carriage contractor on a small scale.
He takes very quiet premises that have
a high boarding round and that are
not overlooked. If he has plenty Of
cellarage, all the better He has at
least one smart trap and horse and
two and sometimes three rogues to go
with it.
1t is during the late foggy afternoons
and early evenings of winter that the
hauls are made. Streets with ware
houses-and not shops that are lighted
brilliantly and early-on each side and
that are often congested with traffic
are mostly chosen. The small and
smart though dingy and inconspicuous
looking trap plunges into the thick of
the traffic. 1t soon, in the gloom and
murk, places itself Immediately behind
van or lOrry piled with packages of
various kinds.
The men in the quick trap are all on
the alert. One of them, a man chosen
for his immense physical strength, goes
to the head Of the pony on some pre-
text. He soon has a package down
from the van in front. He Is provided
with sharp cutting instruments, and he
has a powerful piece of strap with a
hook at one end. If there is boy sit
ting behind the van, the men in the
trap contriye to get him down by d.
yerting his attention. Even with q
view to distracting the possible atten-
get up an alteration, or barney"
among themselves or with others. They
are men Of colossal impudence and
powers of abuse, and all attention be-
comes riveted upon them. In one case
not far from Harrington street last De-
cember they carried off one parcel Of
furs worth t1OO, the van boy being
temporarily blinded, as alleged, by
lad with the thieves blowing some
snuff into his face from a pea shooter
and then disappearing.
One of the most notorious of these
fog thieves was a 1.-the young fellow
who crept along the back Of pony to
its head, American jockey fashion, and
hooked what he could from out Of the
van in front.
The great hauls of these men are
when they follow cabs and private car
riages from a railway station. In such
cases they generally use two traps and
horses. A cab is marked that has ap-
parently valuable luggage on the top.
This is followed till some dark street
Is reached where the way is narrow or
congested; then the driver Of one of
the traps, that has a very swift pony
harnessed to it, deliberately drives
across the head of the cab or carriage
horse.
OF course there Is an angry alterca-
ton, and while this is going on the
thieves on the other trap have got into
the immediate rear of the luggage Ia
den vehicle. One of the thieves goes
along his horses back and lifts the lug
gage down.
One Of the hauls effected last winter
in this way was worth $4,000 and was
the property of Mr.. de Silva, an Argen-
tina millionaire. The robbery took place
not far from st. Pancras' church just
before the shops were lighted up.
AS the summer sun brings forth
myriads of living creatures, so does
Thames fog bring out upon the dark
and apparently deserted river vast
horde of thieves. At least dozen of
the wharf and lighter owners complain
Of losing from their respective wharyes
as much as from one to six hundred
pounds worth of coal alone every year.
The reader can learn ut any river
side house frequented by tugboat men
that there are scores, literally scores, Of
tugs on the river that have never
bought a pennyworth Of coal for great
numbers of years. The Thames police
would tell that same reader that men
have retired on completeness who have
been reported to have made their whole
fortune out Of coal stolen with i'm
punity on the river.
The police are helpless over the vast
expanse of river and in the labyrinth
inc backwaShes. If they raid one OF
theSirate boats in the gloom and dark
ness the spoil is turned out to the
bottom of the river in a trice. If this
sort of thing can be done to such an
extent with a commodity like coal, 1t
may be imagined what befalls other
valuable property on wharyes or in
lighters.
The fraudulent picker up Of the
river blesses the fog. The picker up
is a man who notices that certain
barges with valuable cargoes are moor
ed In such a way that, If they broke
loose, they would entail vast expense.
The picker up sees that these barges
do break loose. That part Of his work
he does in dead secret. And then, max
ing plenty Of noise about 1t at this
stage, he rescues from danger the
very barges that he has set adrift and
sends in a heavy salvage claim.-Lon-
don Answers.