The Washington herald., 1909-07-11
The Tricks of Jewel Thieves
B y b. r. w insl o w.
she had already
stolen. When the


nothing OF them and he was unable
90 find them on her person. A varia
tion Of this scheme brings the hus
band of the lady upon the scene lust
as she is about to make a purchase
In harsh tones he reminds her that
she has been forbidden to buy any
more jewelry, and. snatching heI
purse out of her hands, makes on
She becomes hysterical and the sym
pathetic jeweler helps her to her car
riage. Later he discovers that sew
eral of his rings went with the purse
the irate husband carried Off
One diamond thief devised a method
of secreting the stolen stones i'm such
a way that they would not lee discov
cred II suspected and searched
which did not require the assistance
of an accompIice. And by so doing
he earned for himself the title OF
The Gentleman Who Swallows
Raw" He pretended to be afflicted
with a terrible cough and while ex-
amining some loose stones would be
seized with fits of coughing. Every
time his handkerchief went to his
mouth to smother the cough he swai-
lowed stone.
ONE trick OF the class of thieves
who are more bold than clever has
been successfully worked a number
of times recently. The thief enters
a store for the purpose of purchas.
ing an inexpensive article and WIN e
making his selection he sees a costly
diamond brooch that catches hi8
fancy and he declares that he must
have It, Unfortunately, wnen he ex-
amines his purse, he has not sufB-
cient money to pay for IT, He asks
the jeweler TO send g clerk nome
with him to get the money, which the
unsuspecting jeweler does most will
ingly When they reach the home OF
the would-be purchaser, which ia a
vacant house for which he has Sc
cured the key under pretense of de
string to rent, the supposed customer
opens the door, courteously waves the
clerk forward and when e has en-
tered. slams the door and locks IL on
the outs de. BY the time the impris-
cned clerk has broken out of the
house the thief is not to be found.
A somewhat similar trick was re-
Gently worked upon a Chicago jew
eler. A well dressed gentleman
called at a jewelry store and made
an appointment with the manager @
have clerk bring several diamond
brooches to his hotel the next after.
noon. The clerk arrived promptly
and was conducted TO the room OF
the prospective customer my wife
is having her bath just at this mo
ment." the man informed the cler,s
"I'll just take them in and let her
select the one she wants" The oh.
liging clerk did not object and the
man entered the next room. The
clerk waited some time and then
went to investigate. He found that
the next room led into the hall and
the door was open. Upon inquiry at
the Office be learned that the man
had no wife, at least not at that
hotel.
Probably the cleverest theft of dia-
monds was the robbery of the Hat
ton Garden postofiice, several years
ago. The postOffice is in the center
of the diamond business of London
and is used by diamond merchant
in transmitting their precious stone
abroad. At FIVE o'clock each even
ing all the registered packages are
made up In a special bag to be sent
to the main Office at ST. Martain's-
le-Grand. This was wei known to
the criminal class OF that section
and numerous attempts to rob the
Office had been made. On this one
successful occasion the special bag
had been made up and hung on it's
accustomed peg ready for removal