The New York herald., 1921-12-13
oftener and are therefore moi

oftener and are therefore more
available.
But next TO the Ford on the stolen
motors list comes the Buick. Up until
November 20 S3f Bucks were reported
stolen in New York city. And next on
the list comes the Dodge. They got
away with about 109 OF them this year,
not counting November and December.
The answer Is almost as simple to find
as in the case of the Ford car. 1t is
not difficult to dispose of Buick; nor
Is it the most difficult thing in the world
to obliterate the identity thereof The
same may be said of the Dodge.
Costly Cars Almost Immune.
And throughout the entire list a SINH
lar line of reasoning obtains. For exam
pie. you find but four Rolls Royces.
Folk possessing Rolls Royces have
chauffeurs to sit at the wheel while the
cars are waiting at the curb. Besides
there are relatively only few such cars
In the city. He who steals or attempts
to steal a Rolls Royce IL much like the
chap who decides to hide team of ele-
plants. 1t can be done, but not easily.
And you may imagine your own
thoughts II a stranger went to you offer
ing $4,000 or $4,000 car for a thou
sand or so. Once every ten years or so
they find some one has purchased Brook
lyn Bridge for $50.
The stolen lists contain "a Cadillacs.
90 Chambers. 11e Chevrolets, SO Hud-
sons. SO Packards, II Oldsmobiles. 4s
Paiges, "A Nationals, SO Stutzes and SO
Chalmerses. Thus we account for 1865
Of the 4,14S stolen motor cars. The re-
naming 780 are distributed over field
Of nearly fifty makes Of automobiles.
The Lexington, for instance, has caught
the fancy of the thief. Forty Lexing-
tons were reported stolen during the
year.
The mightiest protest. of course. arises
from the insurance companies. Several
insurance men. asked for their opinion
regarding the increase In the number OF
stolen automobiles took the middle
ground by saying that they had no rea-
son to believe that the police are not
as vigilant as circumstances make 1t
possible for them to be, but that some
thing" will have to be done to prevent
further increase ses.
These insurance people find that auto
mobile insurance Is almost as risky to
them as any bad risk" insurance they
write. IT, for example, car is recov-
cred by the police they pay the Police
Department reward for turning 1t over
to them. If the car is not found they
mourning loser of the car. In either
case they lose money.
They have tried various means to
| tighten the burden all this places upon
them.
Last February, for various reasons
suggested by the investigation of the
New York Police Department by former
Gov. Whitman, the insurance companies
decided to discontinue paying such re-
ward to the police Until after the latter
had obtained the conviction o. the per-
son or persons who rad stolen the recov-
cred automobile. l. was suggested at
! that time (but never proved) that au-
tomobiles might be stolen and then left
| where certain policemen could find them.
| The policeman would turn in the car.
| The reward was paid to the department.
| He got his share, and out of that he
might have paid q certain amount to
| the man who stole the car and left it
where he might find it--a place desig-
mated I'm advance. OF course.
| There was no cIea- proof that such
state of affairs existed. But the in
surance people decided to pay no more
rewards until after the thief was be-
hind bars. one hundred and five in
| surance companies subscribed to this
| new arrangement. The result was thai.
the number of convictions did not In
crease and that the thefts of automo-
biles kept on increasing as usual.
| So a few weeks ago the same insur-
ance officials got together again and de-
cldcd to resume the old schedule of pay
ing rewards upon the recovery of the
car They set forth their change of
! heart in a letter TO the Automobile
! Underwriters Detective Bureau, 140
Nassau street an organization repre-
sentlng about three quarters Of the auto
mobile insuring companies. 1t read:
I'm regard to tho agreement made
with cx-Gov. Whitman that members of
| the detective bureau would pay no re-
wards for the recovery of stolen auto