The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-28
DECOYS FOR MAIL THIEVES.
Letters Mailed by Inspectors Bring the
Hest Results.
From the Washington Star.

There have been several arrests and con-
~victions of local postal employees recently
for mail depredations, and in discussing
these instances a post office inspector said;
Although we use the same old bait in
catching postal offenders. and the novice
at the business and the old hand know what
II is as we'll As wel they keep on Just the same
until the time worn but deadly certain 'decoy
letter lands them high and dry in the peni-
Tertiary, to wonder and lament at their
leisure why they were SO weak and foolish
to bite at It,.
THE 'decoy letter Ia such a simple thing
that the average citizen may wonder at is
effectiveness, or why the thief doesn't sue
coed in lodging it. 1t is the greatest silent
thief catcher in use by men who make II
their business to apprehend their dishonest
fellows. will always remain so. and doesn't
need improving to insure its stability in the
criminal world.
There is an angle OF delusion in matters
criminal as In honest affairs. and the postal
thief's SAINT is that he thinks he will not be
discovered: at the same time he knows per-
fectly well that complaints of missing letters
containing valuables are invariably made
to the department, and that the departments
machinery for the investigation is practically
peri 1t, based upon years OF experience.
The postal thief, emboldened by initial sue
cesses and elated by the pleasant novelty of
having in his pockets ready and easy money
for which he did not have TO work, goes along
merrily until the innocent appearing 'decoy
letter ia silently slipped in the mails. to find
its way to his hands IS surely as does the fish
torpedo the steel agnet Of the battleship's
sides.
DO they try to dodge this missive Of dan
ger? Oh. yes, they do try. The eNplosio.
does not necessarily follow the launching OF
the first letter. If a postal thief Ia suspicious
of a letter he will LEI it go through, even though
he Is morally certain that it contains the COW
eted cash he is after. In these eases the de
coy continues its part Of the silent detective
Just the same. If the dishonest employee al
lows II to slip by 1t tells the inspectors at
the other end of the line in its mute way that
the employee Is on, they Just send another,
and still others. II necessary, until the inev-
itably certain one lands in the pocket Of the
thieving employee, then to change It's role Of
detective to documentary evidence which
winds up the career of the victim of his own
cupidity.
THE 'decoy letter contains all the outward
and inward, for that matter, appearance of
an ordinary piece of mail intended for the
addressee, who may be some private citizen
or business house whose mail is being tam
pered with. That's how we get en-; they can't
tell the difference, 1t being 4 case of all look
ing alike to me Only n postal thief is natu-
rally cautious. and doubly so If he thinks he
is being watched. But they don't all look
alike to the post officeNinspect In charge of
the case. Their private carmarks arc as big
as n house to the inspectors, and when they
are shown up In court, one by one. | guess
that they look about twice as large to the
thief on trial"