Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-19
PICKP0CKET EXPERIENCE

business of separating people. mostly
women, from the money they had ready
to invest in a thousand different things
in a department store? How? Anyone
who could give all the answers to this
"how" would earn lasting gratitude
from thousands of women and from
hundreds of department store detec-
tlves, and would quickly put the pick
pocket out of business.
For not only are the ways Of the
pickpocket numerous, but also most in
genious. Here is one of these ways,
related by a woman who was victim
of a gang of pickpockets in down
town store recently, but who, luckily
for her, escaped with only loss of 90
cents.
II was standing in front of coun-
ter looking at some laces, l believe"
the woman said, when l suddenly felt
somebody standing extremely close to
me. I turned around quickly with
sort of indecision, as if wondering what
counter she had better go to. Her arm
was raised and her fingers were fidget-
ing with a button on her jacket as IL
she were trying to adjust it.
without thinking what l was doing
l grabbed my purse, which was hang
ing suspended from my arm. 1t was
open. / looked into it quickly, and 1
saw that my small pocketbook, In
which / always kept change for car
fare and so forth was missing. 1 be-
gan to tumble for il in the purse,
thinking that it might have fallen
out of it's place down between the
various articles 1 held in the larger
hand bag. When I looked up an in
slant later, fully convinced that the
woman whom I had noticed standing
there before had disappeared
"I could not follow her in the crowd
But in the next instant I saw three or
four women, all of them not far from
me, in commotion. Each one of them
was missing money. One woman missed
some $50 and was on the verge of hys-
terics. A store attendant went up
to her. Another one was asking the
other women how much they had lost.
st, too, began talking about my
loss to the women about me. when
man, accompanied by a well-dressed
woman, who stood close to me all tn"
while. asked me how much l had lost
told him that all my change, which
was about so cents, was gone, but luck
lily, I explained to him, I had my
check, which I was going to use In
paying for the things I was to get
in the store, in another pocket. which
escaped the pickpocket's nimble fin
gers. But what was I to do about
car fare? l was so scared that I did
not care to cash my check and do any
more shopping that day.
1.-THE man sympathized with me and
offered me nickel for car fare. re-
fused to take It, Then he asked me
where I was going-in what direction.
I told him. Here he exclaimed that
he and his wife. too, were going in that
direction. They would be glad to ac-
company me to the car and there pay
my fare, thus relieving me from the
embarrassm of taking a nickel from
him.
so we went out together and board
ed car. He paid my fare, and he and
the woman who went with him took
seat not far from me. They rode In
the car about three blocks. and then
both of them. as If suddenly remem-
bering something important, jumped
from their seat and left the car.
"Only after the man and woman left
did it dawn upon me how strange and
suspicious their actions were, ard it
became clear to me that the man got
me out of the store before I had time
to tell about my loss and perhaps give
a description of the woman whom l
instantly suspected. The man and wo-
man saw that I was calmer than all
the other women. because my loss
amounted to so little, and consequently
I would be able to give a better de-
scription of the pickpocket than they
would. Hence they got me out of the
store in this ingenious way.
"Now, after recalling the facts and