Morris tribune., 1901-02-09
A LONDON CRIMINAL.
THE FOG THIEF AND HOW HE PLIES
HIS PECULIAR TRADE.


Plunder From Vans and Cabs
/ shrOuded In the Dense Gloom.
Thousands of thieves long for fog
with great longing. Incredible as it
may seem, property worth tens of thou
sands of pounds is every year stolen
from vans and lorries alone in 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 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 60
| 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 inconspic |
looking trap plunges into the thick, Of |
the traffic. It soon, in the gloom and [
murk, places itself Immediately behind |
a 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 a boy sit
ting behind the van, the men in the
verting his attention. Even with
view to distracting the possible atten-
ton of carriers, the thieves generally
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 Farringdon street last De- |
cember they carried of one parcel Of
flIrs worth ECO. the van boy being
temporarily blinded, as alleged, by d
lad with the thieves blowing some I
snuff into his face from a pea shooter
and then disappearing.
One Of the most notorious Of these
fog thieves was 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 railway station. In such
cases they generally use two traps and 3
horses. A cab is marked that has ap- 9
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 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 q
the immediate rear of the luggage la r
den vehicle. One Of the thieves goes f
along his horses back and lifts the lug Y
gage down. q
One of the hauls effected last winter y
in this way was worth $4,000 and was =
the property Of Mr.. de Silva, an Argen- q
tina millionaire. The robbery took place i
not far from st. Pancras' church just /
before the shops were lighted up. q
AS the summer sun brings forth q
myriads Of living creatures, so does a h
Thames fog bring out upon the dark 8
and apparently deserted river a vast n
horde of thieves. At least dozen of \
The wharf and lighter owners complain t
IF losing from their respective wharves Y
rs much as from one to six hundred a
pounds worth of coal alone every year Il
The reader can learn at any river $,
'ide house frequented by tugboat men d
hat there are scores, literally scores, of Il
Jugs on the river that have never 81
bought pennyworth of coal for great %
numbers of years. The Thames police n
would tell that same reader that men b
ave retired on completeness who have
een reported to have made their whole Al
ortune out Of coal stolen with i'm e.
unity on the river. n
The police are helpless over the vast In
xpanse of river and in the labyrinth tt
ne backwashes. If they raid one Of b
he pirate boats in the gloom and dark to
less. the spoil is turned out to the
ottom of the river in trice If this
ort Of thing can be done to such an
xtent with commodity like coal, ii ol
nay be imagined what befalls Other lu
aluable property on Wharves or in e1
ghters. ~
The fraudulent picker up Of the In
lver blesses the fog. The picker up d'
; man who notices that certain st
argos with valuable cargoes are moor er
in such a way that, if they broke Il
,ose, they would entail vast expense. to
he picker up sees that these barges ia
0 break loose. That part of his work OF
) does in dead secret. And then. max, st