The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1908-05-14
The Shoplifter.
copyright. 1908. !

He was a man that never forgot a
face. He also had u large stock of in
tuition. This last often aided him in
sporting guilty parties and bringing
them to justice In England shoplift-
ing means certain Imprisonment when
detected and an arrest made by 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, and
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 salesman could
give him q description of the suspect
only hi; intuition to guide him. In
time he came to be so dreaded that
shopiifting babe fair to be lost art.
but there was always Il 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 Il period of ninety days in
which not a case Of thievery had been
reported q shoplifter suddenly began
plying her art. 1t was judged from the
first that she was il woman She
Gifted" cloaks, furs. untrimmed hats,
gloves, petticoats. handkerchiefs and
other things of female wear, and she
did it so deitly that the inspector had
an admiration for her Her ShOplift-
ing extended to other stores and to
jewery esta blshments. She went the
rounds Of ten or twelve of them.
The first description of the suspected
party was that Of Il good looking, mid
de aged woman, well dressed and
seeming to have plenty of money. The
second was that of 4 woman fifty
years old and dressed in mourning.
The third was that of Il young woman
Of thirty. evidently living in some sub
urban town. There were three or four
other descriptions. and none of them
exactly agreed as to color of hair and
eyes. The inspector smiled over them
and made up his mind that he had got
hold Of q 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 Il 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 esta bIishment twice in the same
makeup. If he was q man about town
one day, he was a farmer the next. If
he was Il mechanic asking for a pound
of nails one day. he was an old woman
looking for cheap handkerchiefs the
next 1t was these DISCUSSES that
struck terror to the hearts of the aver
age shoplifters. They never could tell
that the person ut their elbow, man
or woman. was not the dreaded Ham
mond.
He expected trouble from the woman
Of DISCUSSES. and he 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 q man. She was a
youngish man. Il middle aged man and
an old man by turns.
\ French detective came over on an
old case that Hammond had followed
unsuccessfulIy He had the records Of
it in an old notebook in trunk in the
garnet in Kensington. He had wife,
but no children. and lived in a moder-
ate, modest way His natural DISPOSE
ton was secretive, and it 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 Hammond's i'll
success in making an arrest had been
duly chronicled, but very little talk had
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 garnet 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
floor and began his search. After
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 a lot of the stun
hesknew had been stolen. He at once
examined the two other boxes and
found them literally damned full OF
plumber
No man can tell what his feelings
We're 1t was as plain to him as day
light. His wife was the shOplifter. He