The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-05-10

10 uCs SHcuScu Wy IONAiisys ouO WINS
alike in New York or Kalamazoo. Take
fer instance. any office anywhere.
Money has been disappearing from Let.
tiers that go through that office Tass
has been going on for perhaps ,wo
months. lerhaps six months. Every
belly is rnder suspicion: yet there Is
TO e:!6snce that tends to place iSs
blame. Injecting mathematics will do
1t.
How They Are Caught.
Whenever money disappears. the in
dividual sending it will sooner or later
complain of its nondeiivery. The facts
as nearly as it is possible to get them
are taken as to the time and place OF
mailing each letter. 1t is known
through what hands these letters
would pass. This limits the POSSIBLE
ity Of the theft to probably twenty
men. There is likely to be not more
than one thief operating in one office
at a given time: SO it is logical to say
that he is 4 man through whose hands
all the letters that have been riflei
would pass in their regular course.
This again narrows the group: for !.
would have been impossible for ce:-
tain clerks and carriers to have seen
all these letters
There are now probably ten men
who might have taken the letters. The
exact days and hours that these ten
men have worked for the six months
in question are then brought into con-
sideration. Brown had a vacation in
August, yet the thefts continued
through that month. and Brown could
not have been implicated. He is elm
mated. Several of the thefts occurred
between eight and nine o'clock. Smith
never comes on till ten. He could not
have got he letters. Two letter. dis
appeared during the three days that
Green was Ill and off duty. He could
not have taken them. The possibili.
ties for every one of ten men are work.
ed out. 1t is found that Jones is the
only man who has been on duty all
the time each theft has occurred. 1t
looks bad for Jones. He had two
weeks vacation in September. No let.
tiers were lost during that time.
The problem is checked and proved
back and forth in a dozen ways. There
is no question that Jones Is the guilty
man. We know it beyond shadow OF
doubt. We have not the evidence. how
ever, upon which to convict him. Be-
ing convinced that he is the man. We
find a method of watching him and see
him taxing the money. This an In
spector usually does. Even then 1t Ia
IL the ispector's word against the EN-.
ployee's, and this is not sufficient be-
fore the court.
1T il at this point that the test let.
tiers are sent. We never call them de.
coy letters in the service n the public
is prone to do. They arc q test To
prove the man. not a decoy to lead him
to do something We wish him to do.
We know where to reach our man and
how to send the test letters through
his hands. We arrange a goodly num-
Der of them and let them trickle limo
Gently through the office. He IL all
unsuspicious. and is almost certain to
open one Of them. At the end OF the
days work he is arrested, searched,
and the marked bills We placed In the
letters are IOuuO On uA0 PCIoOA. W.
have positive proof Of his guilt and he
goes to prison.
How They Detect the Money.
It is hard to understand how the
employees know that there 10 money
in these letters: for 1t Is not hard
money but bills that are mostly stolen.
There are many ways In which the
handler OF letters can tell
when there is a bill in one Of them.
In the first place. it deadens the rus
tie of the paper. It kives the letter .
sponginess and a leathery feeling. As
a final test they smell the letter.
Have you never noticed the odor OF
paper money? 1t has q very notice
able odor. and these sharks smell 1t
out
Il sent a large batch of test letters
through an office on one occasion.
and the man suspected actually ex-
tracted the money from sixteen of
them on a single round. This man
was a carrier who thought he had. or
iginated a plan Of his own that could
not be detected. He was exemplary.
to all appearances, and had attracted