Evening journal., 1908-12-14
The ShOplifter.
copyright. 1851

inspector huhllhOuu ) pofuculaf line
was the capture OF shoplfters. male
and female. but especially the latter
He was man that never forgot a
face. He also had a large stock Of in
tuition. This last often aided him in
spotting guilty parties and bringing
them to justice In England shoplift-
ing means certain Imprisonment when
detected and an arrest made by a reg
ular police officer
Inspector Hammond had the run of
twenty large retail establishments, but
was known only TO the managers. All
complaints came directly to him, aud
at any hour in the day convenient to
him he was at liberty to stroll through
the stores and mingle with the Gus
toners. Sometimes a salesman could
give him description of the suspect
ed party, but oftener than not he had
only his intuition 10 guide him. In
time be came TO be so dreaded that
shoplifting bade fair to be lost art,
but there was always daring man
or woman ready to pit wits against
his After making hundreds of ar
rests and winning fame for himself he
met his Waterloo
In one Of the big London department
stores, after a period OF ninety days In
which not case of thievery had been
reported. a shoplifter suddenly began
/ plying her art. It was judged from the
first that she was woman. She
lifted" cloaks. furs, untrimmed hats.
gloves, petticoots. handkerchiefs and
other things Of female wear, and she
did it so deftly that the inspector had
an admiration for her Her shoplift-
ing extended to other stores and to
| jewelry establishments. She went the
rounds of ten or twelve of them.
The first description of the suspected
| party was that of good looking, mid
die aged woman. well dressed and
seeming to have plenty of money. The
| second was that Of a woman fifty
| years old and dressed in mourning.
The third was that of a young woman
of thirty. evidently living in some sub
urban town. There were three or four
other descriptions. and none of then
exactly agreed as to color Of hair ano
eyes. The inspector smiled over them
and made up his mind that he had got
hold of a cute thief. He believed that
all the descriptions applied to the one
woman. That they varied so much was
owing to the fact that she was so good
at disguise. He believed the first de-
scription TO be n correct one and that
the woman must return TO it sooner or
later.
The inspector owed much of his sue
cess to his disguise. He never visited
an establishment twice in the same
makeup If he was a man about town
one day. he was a farmer the next. If
he was a mechanic asking for a pound
of nails one day. he was an old woman
looking for cheap handkerchiefs the
next. 1t was these disguises that
struck terror to the hearts Of the aver
age shoplfters They never could tell
that the person at their elbow. a man
or woman. was not the dreaded Ham
mond
He expected trouble from the woman
of disguises. and be had it in plenty
She Piled her trade right under his
nose. She got the goods and got away
time after time. In one store she was
credited with forty acts of thievery.
Hammond gave up all other cases TO
follow her trail. For three long months
she succeeded in evading him. One Of
her DISCUSSES during that interval was
the habiliments of man. She was a
younglsh man. a middle aged man and
an old ma9 by turns.
A French detective came over on an
old case that Hammond had followed
unsuccessfully. He had the records Of
It in an old notebook in a trunk in the
garret in Kenslngton. He had a wife.
but no children. and lived in a moder-
ate, modest way. His natural disposi-
tion was secretive, and 1t was seldom
that even his wife could draw any
thing out of him about his cases. She
! had to go TO the newspapers for most
Of her information. The doings of the
/ crafty shoplifter and Hammonds III
success in making an arrest had been
, 0A4g NhAoAiNieAf bue hSAs iANliI NuiN hAo
passed at home.
The Frenchman called at the yard
and let it be known what he wanted,
and the inspector went home in the
middle OF the afternoon to get the
[ notebook. He found his wife absent
and let himself in with his latchkey
. In the garret OF the house were three
or four old chests and trunks, together
with other rubbish, and none of the
receptacles was locked. The man drew
one Of the trunks to the middle Of the
hOor aud began bis search. After a
quarter of an hour he discovered that
he had got hold of the wrong trunk
and therefore dragged out another
The first thing his eyes rested on after
lifting the cover was lot of the stufl
he knew had been stolen. He at once
examined the two other boxes and
found them literally jammed full oi
I plumber.
s No man can tell what his feeling:
b were 1t was as pIain to him as day
light. His wife was the shoplifter. HI
d never came home in the afternoon. and
she thus had the whole day 20 herself
She knew of all his disguises. and she
. had taken lessons from him. Even al
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