The Monticellonian., 1917-07-26
MANY NEW TRICKS
Ingenuity Shown by shopIifters
 Astounds Storekeepers.
handkerchief, Dummy Hand and the Bottomless Vanity Box Among
 Devices of Thieves.

Each year the shopliftefs spring new and uncanny tricks on the watch ful detective and astute salesmen i1 the big department stores and shops carrying out so deftly their light fin gered art, that, as expressed by man ager of one of the largest of these stores, they make Aladdin's wonder ful lamp seem like spluttering oil dip of the early centuries"
 Shoplifting, according to an ex- change. has long since developed into q study with the heads of the large establishments, and so carefully have they diagnosed the cases that come under their observation that it is not often the shoplifter gets away with the spells.
 One reads great deal about the house detectives employed by the big shops, but except in a few cases no such person is employed to watch shoplifters, this business being the in- dividual duty of each employee While they are waiting on the customer they are at the same time exercising untir- ing vigilance.
 The handkerchief trick is not new one. but the amount of damage 1t does is astonishing. It is worked in various ways. The most successful operator is usually dressed in widows weeds. This makes it look more nat ural for the handkerchief to be con tinually in evidence. It Is poor shop liter now who does not dress the part. The handkerchief. kept in the hand all the time by the bereayed woman, is carelessly dyopped on any thing in sight small enough and valu- able enough to be desirable, and when it is next held to the widows face it is possible that Il ring Is inside it, to be passed temporarily to the mouth for eoneealment.
 However. there is nothing uneanny about the handkerchief trick It is the false hand trick that almost con yinces one that witeheraft is not thing of the past When the sales girl sees two hands in plain view. and yet is conscious that articles are dis
 
 not believe her eyes. But it is all very simple, as the gloved hand resting on the counter is q false one while the mate 10 the hand examining the goods is under cover of raincoat or huff, purloining everything in sight worth carrying off.
 \ floor walker who could write vol umes on such tricks says that he worked on q ease of this kind for sev eral days without success, when one morning he was looking down from one of the small galleries in the store and saw the various articles disap- bearing under the woman's cloak i while 10 all appearances both of her hands were in plain view. The ar tices were moving as if by magic, and the trick was not discovered until he invited ,he young person to go with him to the managers office.
 This same tloorwalker added that the most ingenious trick he had stum bled across was the vanity box trick adding that the majority of shop filters who work in department stores are women and that nowadays every woman carries q vanity box of some description. It may be as small as q 25-cent piece or as large as a silver dollar.
 The shoplifter variety is of the larger kind, bettomless and fitted witt a rubber ball attached to an ornamen tal button on the lid of the box, which when pressed expands the ball, caus ing suction. The owner of this device when at work at the jewelry counter places the vanity box on the show case while she looks at rings or other small jeweiry, and when the oppor tunuity arrives moves il over the ar ticIe and it is sucked into the case.