The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-29

around until the opportunity presents itself
and then he commences work.
Hotel Sneaks a class Of criminals
that the police all over the country are
continually having trouble with, and the
larger the city the more prominent the
Motel thief makes himself All of the large
hotels in Chicago, New York and St Louis
1aVe detectives employed regularly, but
even with this method i'm operation thieves
get In and often make large hauls, as well
as their escape, and are never caught.
The trouble the police have in dealing
with these criminals is that while many
OF them are old ones and are well-known
everywhere, once in awhile some new EEL
low breaks into the ranks, and then il is
hard matter to apprehend him. As mat
ter or fact these thieves all employ the
same method of working, and this makes
IL rather hard for the detectives 10 recog-
nize a hand
A case of this kind happened in New
York some months ago. An Austrian
actor and singer. finding himself out of
employment, adopted an astOnishingly
simple method of getting money-he turned
hotel sneak.
Without employing any of the usual meth
DDS OF the finished and expert hotel sneak
he cleaned up, ii was stated when he was
arrested a few weeks ago, nearly $4,000
most OF IL at the WadOrf-AGtOria His
scheme was almost childish both in con-
ception and execution, big winner as il
proved TO be for the sneak. Il was simply
70 watch ehanee and steal room key
from the clerks desk when the opportunity
onered Then he would ride up to the room
called for by the number open the door and
get the goods. That was all there was to it,
The whole scheme of the Austrian sneak
hinged upon and was made easy by the
carelesSness with which hotel KEYS are
handled, and particularly by the men be-
hind the desks.
Some of the detectives connected with
police forces, not only in this city, but all
over the country, say that this is the rea-
son hotel robberies have been made so easy
and that such large number of new men
have turned hotel sneaks in the last few
years.
Detectives claim that in many instances
where people have thought that the sneak
used skeleton keys he really did nothing of
the kind, but gained entrance TO the room
that was robbed by the key which really
belonged TO it, They contend that in the
larger cities it is very easy thing to walk
up to the desk in any of the big hotels and
pick up key, or bunch of them for
that matter, and get away with the mer-
chandise in that simple fashion.
The policemen further say that if a person
is observing he will notice that ninety-nine
persons out of a hundred never think of
waiting to see the hotel clerk pick up the
tossed-down key and place it in the box.
Inc average person just chucks the key
down on the counter and edges away with
out ever rejecting that he is leaving the
key exposed there for anybody to pick up
tfat feels like getting into a room that he
isn't occupying.
A NOVEL SCHEME.
Not many years ago man was arrested
in New York, which is the mecca for hotel
sneaks on account of the always crowded
condition of the prominent hotels. This
man worked a rather novel racket, and
his sole business was to get hold of keys.
His scheme involved a preliminary cam
paign of registering at the swell hotels in
different cities before he got down to actual
work
He would take a stylish room or apart
ment at hotel for a day or So pay his
bill and go away carrying the key with
him as If inadvertently, and move along
another stylish hotel, repeating the per-
f0rmance and annexing another key. Then
he would go back over his route. the rooms
having filled up with "pay-ore folks" as
the detectives explain it, He was sure of
this, for they had to be the moneyed kind
in order to take such rich apartments.
Then the sneak thief would only have to
wait until the occupant of the room of
of course, tell by seeing the keys in their
boxes, and then he would slip up to the
room and get his plumber.
The hotel thieves that work here always
accomplish their robberies between and
O'Clock in the morning. The reason they
choose such early hours is that there are
a number of early trains leaving here about
this time, and they have trouble in
getting out of town. In the other cities
these men do their stealing near the hour
when number of trains leaving, for
the professional hotel thief never STAYS i'm
say the detectives.
In the last few years this city has not
been infested by many hotel thieves, but
during the Red Mems encampment, which
was held here last year, two robberies of
this nature occurred, and the thieves made