The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1906-01-12
TRICKS
OF THIEVES

A very slight thing will often cause
the arrest of a thief. For instance
the operations Of pickpocket on the
top of an omnibus IN Tottenham Court
road, London, were clearly seen by q
policeman sitting behind him. This
was the case, although the man was
'covered' by newspaper. The police.
man saw the thiet reflected in the shop
windows passed by the vehicle and as
a result the pickpocket obtained six
months, imprisonment.
A very ingenious trick employed
by poachers is that of candle burn
ing In saucer Of water in the bed
room. This usually is so arranged
that the candle will sputter out at
about 10 o'clock, just as if it had been
extinguished and the man retired for
the night. This ruse is often en-
ployed by poachers who discover that
the keepers are watching the house
for signs of the poacher leaving. In
very many cases the gamekeeper does
not discover that the candle goes out
without any human agency.
A very curious course was adopted
| by Burnley man who had illicitly
entered q dwelling house while the in
mates were shopping. He was seen
leaving the yard by woman who
lived across the way The man, see-
ing that be was noticed, leaned on the
wall with surprising nonchalance and
looked up INTO the sky, as though
seeing if there were any signs of the
abatement of heavy shower. The
woman asked what he wanted, but the
housebreaker totally disregarded the
question. He simply remarked "It's
| raining hard" However, he was ar.
rested some little time after.
Houses have been broken into in
broad daylight in Shrewsbury, during
the absence of the. ..householders. A
considerable amount of ,jewelry and
money was taken from one house,
from which two men were seen to
leave by the front door. They were
clever enough to raise their hats, as
though bowing to somebody at the
widow of the house.
Sometimes the police are not so
clever as they might be. Four men
determined to rob Fulham tavern a
short time ago, and the police laid a
trap for them. At night a detective
inspector and constables occupied the
house, but, absurd as it may seem,
they forgot to put out the lights. The
burglars duly arrived at 2 o'clock,
but they found the place ablaze with
lights, and also noticed one of the
watchers peering out of the front
door. Therefore the wise burglars
! withdrew, and decided not to proceed
further in the adventure. The men
returned, however, week, later, and
this time they were captured.
| The police wished to arrest two men
who were living in the hold of barge
tof1 Brentford. Accordingly the officers
asked the men to Come up and be
arrested" but the thieves, instead of
complying, returned the cordial coun-
ter invitation to the police to "Come
down and join them" Naturally, this
was not easy, for the sergeant com.
.manding the besiegers had recourse to
a very simple but ingenious strata,
gem. He noticed chat the men below
AL kibhl'd firn, SO he told one OF
Tie men to fetch a tile. The sergeant
then placed the tile carefully over the
barge's funnel and the investing force
simply stood around carelessly in
order to await developments. The
suspects stayed below until they were
half suffocated by smoke, when they
had to stumble up on deck and surren-
der to the grinning besiegers.
There are two men who are well
known to the police who are clever
expert ladder thieves. They were
recently arrested and placed in Gus
tody at Winchester. Their method
is to select house by day and make
arrangements and see that there is a
ladder alb bDut. In the evening they
return to the house when the inhabi-
tants are at dinner Tnen they TAX
the ladder to the back Of the premises
and raise it to a first floor window.
Their practice is always to work from
the top part of house. When they
have made these arrangements the
next thing they do is to go downstairs,
wedge the door where the residents
are having dinner, lock them in the
room upstairs and ransack it. Some
times they work with rope ladders