Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-29


their carefully pressed clothes and fresh
" creased trousers. The gentleman" sit
ting in the seat next to YOU with SILK
hat, gloves and cane, may be burglar
or a bunko Steerer.
Professional shoplifters don't bother
with a spool of thread. They are after
furs. jewelry or valuable articles. A
shoplifter with a seedy hat and toes
showing through her shoes would attract
attention. But a we'll dressed woman
who hops out of an automobile and runs
straight up to the store detective and
says: What floor is the fur sale on?''
has a chance.
good shoplifter has to be good
actress-to evade suspicion she must act
the part and dress the part. One woman
/ know very we'll has six charge accounts
in six big New York stores and pays her
bills with real money. Here is what she
told me one day:
Il get a swell fall suit at one store and
made a big fuss over it. l get lots of
appointments for fittings and send for the
head waist filter and the head skirt filter
and get my face and my name we'll rub
bed into the heads of every body in the
suit department 1 have charge ac-
count and pay quick with check. That
gives me standing in that store. If any
thing goes wrong when I'm working that
SURE, WHY We SOl d llIle TclcIcLC lIOiIi
all hands up in the suit department-nice
customer. has charge account. buys
$3.50 suits pays with her own check.
II buy stunning spring suit every
year at another store. l buy a couple of
high-priced hats during the year at a
third store. Then l buy one swell piece
of fur every winter at fourth store and
something they will remember at still a
fifth and sixth store. That gives me
a standing at all these six stores and it
also fixes me up with an outfit of clothes
that gives me chance in any bunch of
millionaire women. Those clothes are
my tools to work with. and it pays to
have good ones"
"Three-handed Annie works on reg
ular plan. She visits one big busy store
each week, but does not return to work
this particular store for six weeks. She
operates mostly in six stores, but does
not work any one of them often enough
to be spotted. The rest of her time she
spends around the Waldorf and other
hotels. watching for a chance to pick up
a sable boa or a fur coat some guest has
laid on a chair for moment.
Does this woman carry a bag or speei-
ally big pocket to put her stolen things
in? No. Her scheme is to rely on her
stylish clothes to disarm suspicion. and
dCIOSS dllIlS tiIS So@ACoS "oJ
she can get away with the goods.
Many professional shoplifters do work
with special outfit Of pockets, hooks and
other things. 1 shall never forget one
device that an acquaintance of mine
showed me, and she was very proud of 1t.
This woman's special line was high-priced
articles, like diamond rings, pearl neck
laces, etc. Some Of the greatest jewelry
stores along 9th avenue and other cities
have suffered from her touch.
Three Handed Annie certainly de-
served the name. She was the wife Of a
man who had formerly worked at the
trade of making artificial limbs and sur
giCal bandageS.
She had been working the stuffed glove
and m,fff scheme. She would pad out a
white kid gloves and sew it into the muff
so that about half Of the glove could be
seen sticking out of one end OF the muf.
This looked like hand, but there was a
hole in the side Of the muff through
which her real hand would creep out and
gather up what she wanted.
The jewelry stores were pretty well on
to this game, and they had got to watch
ing big muffs. So hree-Handed An
ME- got the idea Of having. an entire
false arm and hand made that would cut
out the need of a muff. This seemed
easy enough. but 1t was a uresome job
to fix up the appliance so that It could
be worked satisfactorily, and even then
it was stiff and queer looking, and it took
many months of practice before she could
use the false arm and hand without
arousing suspicion.
/ had known Three Handed Annie" for
some time. but had never met her when
she was rugged out for business. One day
/ had business with her husband and call
ed at his fiat at 126th street. His wife
was just leaving as 1 rang the bell.
Excuse me-" she said. extending her
left hand, but I cannot use my right
hand when my coat is buttoned up
Yes. I see,' l said, but why are you
wearing such big coat and such broad
shouders?"
II will show YOU" she whispered smil-
ing, and stepped back into the fiat
You see this thing Jim and I have in
vented has taken us nearly two years to
perfect. 1t is more Of a trick than you
would think to make it work smoothly.
thought could just hang false arm and
hand up my sleeve and keep the other
hand free to work with, hidden under my
coat, but you bet it wasn't so easy as it
looked.
practice to get the fake arm and hand
working right, and then we found we
would have to pad out the left shoulder to
make up for the false arm that hung from
the right shoulder. Then we had to fill
out the whole left side Of my body to
make up for the thickness of my right
arm that was hid under my jacket.
1.-The only way to fix up my figure was
to get corset arranged with a one
sided sort of makeup, SO that when
put it on and put waist over it, the left
side of my body would look like the right
side, which had the arm hidden under
the coat.
Then when this was all fixed up / had
to have a new outside coat made to fit
over my padded shoulders and help cover
up the lines of my faked-up figure so that
it would not look queer.
How does it work." 1 asked.
"Oh. fine" said Three Handed Annie"
with enthusiasm. Here look. will
spread all these things out on the table
me. / will take six of the articles right
tice it,
And she did. "Three-1anded Annie"
could walk into jewelry shop with one
or two friends and they would get the
clerk to set out his goods. ''Three-Hand-
ed' Annie would flop out across the coun-
ter. that false arm and right hand with a
white kid glove on II, almost touching the
clerk and her left arm and hand would be
held up in front of his face with a ring
or something else she was looking at-and
right there when the clerk felt certain he
would see both her hands she would then