The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-08-04
USE OF DEcOY LETTERS.

There have been several arrests
and convictions of local postal en-
ployees recently for mail depreda-
tions, and in discussing these in
stances postof6ce 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 it is as well as
we, they keep on just the same until
the time worn but deadly certain de
coy letter lands them high and dry
in the penitentiary, to wonder and
lament at their leisure why they
were so weak and foolish to bite at
it.
"The 'decoy letter is such sim
pie thing that the average citizen
may wonder at its effectiveness or
why the thief doesn't succeed in
lodging it. 1t is the greatest silent
thief catcher iu use by men who
make it their business to apprehend
their dishonest fellows, will always
remain so, and doesn't need improv-
ing to insure its stability in the GRIM
inal world.
"There is an angle of delusion in
matters criminal as in honest affairs,
and the postal thief's slant is that he
thinks he will not be discovered at
the same time he knows perfectly
we'll that complaints of missing let
tiers are invariably made to the de-
partment and that the departments
machinery for the investigation is
practically perfect, based upon years
of experience.
"The postal thief, emboldened by
initial successes 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 ap-
pearing 'decoy letter is silently slip
ped in the mails, to find its way to
his hands as surely as does the fish
torpedo to the steel magnet of the
battleship's sides.
"Do they try to dodge his missive
of danger? Oh, yes, they do try.
The explosion does not necessarily
follow the launching of the first let
ter. If a postal thief is suspicious of
a letter he will let it go through,
even though he is morally certain
that it contains the coveted cash he
is after. In these cases the 'decoy'
continues its part of the silent detec-
tive just the same. If the dishonest
employee allows it to slip by it
tells the inspectors at the other end
of the line in its mute way that the
employee is 'on;' they just send an
other, and still others, if necessary,
until the inevitable certain one lands
in the pocket OF the tnieving en-
ployee, then to change its role of de-
tective to documentary evidence,
which winds up the career of the vic
tim of his own cupidity.
"The 'decoy letter. contains all
the outward, and inward for that
matter, appearance Of an ordinary
piece of mail intended Tor the ad-
dressee, who may be some private
citizen or business house whose mail
is being tampered with. That's
how we get 'em. They can't tell
the difference, it being case of all
looking alike to me- Only postal
thief is naturally cautious, and doub-
ly so if he thinks he is being watch
ed. But they don't all look alike to
the postofice inspector in charge of
the case. Their private earmarks
are as big as a house to the inspec-
tors, and when they are shown up in
court one by one 1 guess that they
look about twice as large to the thief
on trial WASHINGTON Star.