The Yale expositor., 1911-11-09
DIAMOND THIEVES
Women Are Experts In PurlOining
the Precious Stones.
SOME TRICKS OF THE TRADE.

Lady Who Worked Nearly Every
Dealer In New York - Ingenious
Trick of a Smooth Berlin S~indIer.
| A former State street jeweler who
Is now member Of a jewelers. pro-
| tective association and travels over
the entire world in search Of dia-
mond and gem thieves told some of
the Interesting methods used by the
| expert thief to steal jewelry, says the
Chicago News.
"Women make good diamond
thieves" he said, "as dealers must
not take a chance of offending a Gus
toner, lest she be rich mans wife
or daughter whose trade If obtained
regularly would amount to thousands
a year. Any woman well dressed and
possessing a certain amount Of re-
hnement can see the entire stock OF
almost any dealer in the country.
When she Is clever enough she can
get stone or piece Of jewelry during
her inspection.
"One New York woman came into
large store and asked to see some
unset diamonds The proprietor Of
the store waited on her and showed
her n large collection of fine stones.
She displayed monster roll Of bills
and was about to purchase an expen-
sive jewel when she asked whether
her husband could see 1t. why, GER
tainly,' replied the proprietor. We
will send it over to him now The
woman hesitated and finally asked
whether they would hold the stone I'M
til that afternoon and she would make
a deposit of $40 on it.
This appeared perfectly proper to
the owner, but when she left two val
liable stones were missing. The wo-
man was hailed. taken to the police
headquarters and searched. The gems
were not found on her. and in her in
dignatiOn she threatened TO bring suit
against the proprietor He had been
sure she had taken the stones. but in
his profuSion of apology offered to give
her the one she had been looking at
and at the same time refund her $40.
This was better than suit and the
loss of all the supposed friends of the
woman. thought the dealer. She ac-
eompanied him back to the store and
while there. watched by detectives,
made her way up to the case where
she had stood before and. slipping her
hand along the under edge. recovered
the two missing stones. stuck there
in little ball of chewing gum.
1.-The detectives did not know posi-
lively at that time whether she had
taken anything from the counter. but
decided TO keep further watch over
her. At another store several days
later. while she was inspecting gems.
stone was dropped on the floor 'ac-
cidentally.' and this also was lost.
Gum on the front of the shoe had
got this one. The woman was ar
rested and confessed that she had
swindled nearly every dealer in New
York with her gum trick
Zone of the most ingenious thefts
was made in Berlin. where Il fellow
walked into Il general jewelry store,
knowing the owner had Il fine dia-
mond. The thief wore an expensive
diamond himself and went into the
man watch repaired. He started to
talk of diamonds and exhibited his
own as choice stone. He was shown
the other stone by the dealer. They
discussed diamonds i'm every phase
until the watch was repaired, when
the stranger started to pay for the
repairing He exhibited large roll
Of bills and purposely overpaid. Dur
ing the slight confusion of counting
his money and paying for his watch
he had substituted for the genuine dia-
mond paste stone, which was being
carefully wrapped up and placed in
its box by the dealer, while the
stranger was sauntering out with his
watch.
"The dealer saw slight carbon
spot in the paste jewel as he was
closing the box and. knowing his
own jewel to be fawless, hurriedly
examined the stone and apprehended
the thief before he was half block
away. secure in the thought that he
was safe.
He was taken to the store and
every particle Of clothing removed,
and he was searched thoroughly, but
the missing jewel could not be found.
More through curiosity at the old
time watch than anything else one
Of the police opened the back Of the
case and found glittering up at him
from the handspring the lost jewel.
The thief confessed and got q heavy
sentence.
There are just thousands Of this
kind OF cases." said the gem thief
sleuth. THE majority Of the really
big fellows that have ever seen are
as fine cut men as one would find any
where. Their personality is usually of
the best. but with a bad streak in
their makeup somewhere"