The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-11-14
Enter The Shoplifter
BY FREDERICK ]. HASkIN

NEW YORK CITY, Nov. 14.-At
this season of the year, New York de-
partment stores increase the size of
their detective forces in order TO com
bat the ever growing number of
thoughtful persons who begin their
shoplifting early From now until
after Christmas, shoplifting will pro
coed at a bold and furious pace The
women's court will be kept busy
hearing the cases of Hght-fingercd
ladies caught at inopportune mo-
ments, while the large Fifth Avenue
stores will lose thousands of dollars
worth of goods to others, who viii
successfully get away with it.
This is always the case. The annual
depredations of shoplifters are re-
garded as an inevitable calamity
which no mercantile establishment,
however resourceful, can hope to es-
cape. And this year the stores antic-
ipate greater difficulties from this
source than ever before, because of
the new styles in sleeves.
You may have observed that the
new feminine sleeve is a voluminoua,
dropping bell-shaped affair. possess
ing tremendous possibilities for ladies
who are clever with their fingers. 1t
is going to be extremely easy to hide
stuff in the recesses of a sleeve
which trails obligingly all over the
counter when the wearer puts her
hand down. We saw it done only the
other day. A plump agile hand, &C
companied by one of these dangling
sleeves, glided quickly along a counter
covered with feminine lingerie, then
paused for several seconds while the
fingers examined the texture of the
silk When the hand moved again it
was in swift upward flight, presum-
ably to adjust a slight discrepancy in
the owners lace collar.
There, you see how easy it is said
the salesgirl who had given the dem
onstration, as she removed a pink silk
undergarment from the sleeve. You
didn't see me do that even though
you were watching. and think how
much simpler it would be to stuff my
sleeve in the confusion of a Christ
mas crowd. That's why we have got
to be so particular and insist upon
customers keeping their arms off the
counters"
A Store Detective.
The interesting information was cor
roborated by one of the store detec-
tives, tall, sleekfaced individual,
who so well looked his part that one
did not see how any shoplifter could
fail to notice and avoid him
There is no doubt but that the new
styles are all in favor of the shop
litter" he said. But, of course. we're
gonna watch 'em And then we've
got our own system. They dort get
away with as much as they used to-"
We pressed for details. by what
astute methods are shoplifters pre-
vented from running off with the
store?" we Injured
"Oh, we get to know a lot of the
professionals by their looks" the de
tective replied. And there's usually
something about them to excite sug-
picion. One thing and another.
We'll, there's the store aisles. for
instance. Notice how wide the aisles
are III this store? That amt for
beauty and it amt for comfort It's
because the light fingered Lizzie8
don't like them. They prefer the mar
row, crowded aisles where they amt
so likely to be seen"
This was all the information we
could drag forth. The System" it
seemed. was q secret formula which
had TO be carefully guarded. If the