The Washington times., 1919-09-07

saleswomeD IN the department where he had made his
purchases and his thefts could take their daily tab Of
stock and discover the absence Of the stolen gownsan
absence which had escaped themthe night before the
senior had remained late and the disarray of gowns
caused by his inspection had been LETT TO stock boys TO
attend tohe appeared at the office Of the vcepredent
and general manager followed by his messenger boys
each carrying suitcase
quite sorry senior. he said to the viee-presi-
dent but night have decided to return fifty
Of the models purchased yesterday As feared
bought too heavily have made purchases that
toe near like Implications.
OF course the viee-president would willingly order
complete refund Of the purchase price of all garments the
did not wish to keep BE had paid in cash, since
there had been question Of cred-ahd would do
lose so good customer The senOr' should have had
his sales sps-hs store receipts which always the
basis Of refunds credit In all retail stores but he very
much regretted to say he had mislad his sps-he
accustomed to them He did not realize their impor
tanee. he had depended upon tags Of his upon
which he kept his price accounting "And-seeI-the
store tags still attached to the garments just they
had been when they left the store. :"
The 'senor had been to lunch with the vieepresideut
and the president He was stopping at the presidents
own club Really they almost were old friends The vice
president would not stand upon formalities at al-he
would attend the refund himself The absence of the
sales slips bit unusual of course, but here the
stores garments themselves-incontrovertib evi
denee that they had been purchased the day before
without purchasing them the "senor could have had
them in his possession.
The vice-president wrote out an order and sent his
a
handed almost thousand doars-the marked price Of
the garments he had returned Had be turned his stolen
garments to fence. purchaser of stolen goods
be would have received than quarter of this
sum Quickly he bowed himself out Of the Offices after
making engagement for luncheon with the president
in celebration Of his departure for his beloved South
America A few moments later-just as the gowns had
been sent to the department where they belonged the
imposition was discovered The 'senor bought but two
dozen gowns-and here were fifty returned. Already
some of these had been missed and search for them was
even now being conducted The senor shoplifterl
The store detectives summoned The Fifth avenue
club visited. The police were notified. But the
"senor" had gone
From Boston next and then from Philadelphia came
reports of similar activities upon the part of the senor
Until the Of the master criminal became
dangerous that managers of department stores and spe.
calty shops compelled to take drastic action cope
with the sudden increase of shopng there could have
been no organized effort to hunt down and punish bold
and daring criminal the ''senor." Now however
there has been organized, to meet the systematic
pagns of the shoplfng band association of depart
sources Of all great stores and devoted wholly the de-
lection and punishment of the master criminals assistants
and all other shoplifters.
The case Of the and his various successful oper
atons duly reported to the headquarters of this
sOciaton The Stores Mutual Protective Association"
and the chief detectives Of all the New York stores which
members Of this association went into conference
once with the chief of detectives Of the Association
Word passed along that such clever thief the
senor must not be allowed TO escape.
The saleswOmen In the different stores In which the
senor had piled his combined game Of confidence and
theveTy called into the conference and each was
asked she had anything to suggest that might help in
the hunt for the cupr-Or if she had noticed anything
strange or unusual about him or his actions