The Washington herald., 1911-03-26
CleVerness of Jewel Thieves.

CleVerness of Jewel Thieves.
The recent adroit and successful rob-
berry in Washington leads to the obServa-
ton that the thief who in these days
makes speciality OF jewel robberies pos
scSses ingenuity which. applied to more
legitimate pursuits, would earn for him
fortune OF course there is the clumsy
thief who snlaShes a window with half
brick. The up-to-date Jeweler check
mates the window -smasher by hanging
an extra plate of glass from the ceiling by
chains just inside. the window pane The
force OF the brick might break the out
SIDE glass, but it would be checked by
the inner plate, and even if it did break
the latter, the two jagged holes make
theft more difficult. Then there is the
thief who enters the jewelers. shop os-
tenslbly to purchase jewels, and endeaN-
Ors TO bolt with a number which he
snatches off the counter, forgetting that
there are such things as automatically
closing doors
The clever jewel thief adopts differ
ent tactics Take, for instance the man
who became known as a regular Gus
toner at q New York jewelers. He
frequently made small purchases and ad-
mlred at the same time the more costly
gems displayed One day he asked to
look more closely at a certain diamond
necklace which he had previously ad-
nlIred, and the obliging Jeweler took it
out OF the case TO show him. After
and the jeweler would have taken no
further note OF the incident had he not
happened to notice that the necklace had
attached to 1t a tag of buff color All
goods in the shop bore white tags. and
he surmised that something was wrong
The man was searched and the original
necklace was found, while the one re-
turned to the jeweler was an imitation.
An elaboration of this trick has been
tried successfully. For instance, a
smsrtly dressed woman. with pretty
child, drives up to a fashionable jewel
er's and asks to inspect stones. Natur-
ally the child displays certain curiosity,
which is checked by the woman with the
words: Keep your hands away" The
little one seems SO innocent of wrong
doing that the Jeweler engages the child
in conversation. This gives the woman an
opportunity to substitute some paste
stones for the real.
Then there is the old dodge of affixing
a piece of cobbler's wax in the hollow
heel of boot, accidentally knocking a
ring from the counter, treading on it, and
after submitting to a search by the sus-
picious jeweler and threatening legal
proceedings for the indignity, walking
out with the spoils. The half-eaten apple
scheme also is an old one The operator
enters store munching an apple, and
while examining uncut stones, presses one
into the apple, casually saunters to the
door and throws it out Then he re.
turns and makes small purchase His
confederate on the outside gets the ap-
pie and the stone
The cleverest trick by far, though. was
one played on London jeweler. A man
was caught in the act Of taking several
diamond rings, and policeman was sent
for and promptly responded He took
the thief into custody, requesting the
merchant to be at Bow street station
within the next fifteen minutes" When
the victim kept the appointment there
was neither policeman nor thief 1t was
case of an accomplice dressed in
policeInans uniform.
AS long as thieves possess such nerve
and ingenuity, who will stop their eff
forts: How can detectives profit bv
these lessons, seeing that in every rob
berry new and ever more ingenious trick
oonfronts them? All sorts of methods
have been invented to baf1e the thieves,
but the cleverness of the latter seems in
exhaustible