Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-03-17
Pro Shoplifter
Gives Way to the
Amateur i'm Big Cities

New York, March 16--(AP)-The
professional shoplifter has turned
over her New York business to her
sister, the amateur.
Stepping out from under, just as
stricter policing of the large depart
ment stores, higher bail following ar
rests, and more frequent sentences.
made things a little too hot. the army
of hard boiled regulars has left
for the smaller cities.
Young working girls-"lunch-h hour
shop lifters"-and middle class house
wives. their husbands often fairly
well off. are their successors.
Most shop-lifters today are I'M
skilled culprits, thieves of impulse,
easily caught and in most cases
warned by the results of their first
offense. W. Des Trenholm, secretary
of the Stores Mutual Protective AS
ISOLATION, Inc. said today. With the
recentE sending to the penitentiary of
Margaret Reilly, known all over the
east for her shop lifting and bag
opening propensities. the dean of
professional shop filters was ushered
off the stage.
-Four out of five of the shop lifters
W So tohpS diC NOuilS WI hii5 Sii 10
who crowd the stores at non and on
Saturday afternoons. and steal little
trinkets that tempt their vanity
perfume, beads, silk stockings, lin
gerie, said Detective Orth, who has
been with Stern Brothers 20 years
Women are stealing today simply
because they want to get something
for nothing said Detective Wall of
Mays. MANY arrested here are
professional women. or the wives of
professional men.
"The vast majority of the shop
filters could afford to pay for the
things they steal-often have the
money in their purses, at the time."
A contrary opinion was expressed
by Chief Clerk Frank Smith of the
court of special sessions. where dur
ing 1925, 1883 shop-lifter cases were
trieed with 1875 convictions.
MANY women steal because they
are tempted by something they see
and want. possibly need, and have
not the money for them in their
pinched little weekly budgets" he
said.
'Just as the majority of shoppers
are women, so are the majority of
hop-lifters. OF the 1883 cases last
year. only 260 were men,"
Men sometimes come in and
steal around Christmas time" said
Detective Wall. They are the type
who don't like to waste money on
presents. SO they try to pick up a
few knickknacks to give away"
"Shop-lifting, by the way, is a
seasonal activity, which marked in
crease around holidays. One large
store, for instance, with an average
for the other months of 1870.
showed 304 cases in December.
There was the wife of rich
Cuban sugar planter that we caught
with stolen Christmas presents
marked for all her family an6
friends" added Wall.
Methods of lifting vary.
Covering small objects with news
papers, pushing them into open
bags, slipping garments under
heavy coats and even into the I'M
derwear of the shop-lifter have all
been. tried and discovered by the
quick eve of the detective.
Il remember the case of woman
who went into q store wearing no
dress under her coat" said Justice
Frederick kernachan of the court of
special sessions. "She left the store
wearing a stolen dress, and when
arrested raised a great hue and cry,
demanding that the store produce
her own dress"
With the new shop-lifter have
come new excuses. The women of
the old school, used to play UP fem.
mime frailities.
IN not quite right when I'm this
way" was the plea of Margaret
Reilly. mother of a large family.
when another little Reilly was on
the way.
Today the new psychology Is
quoted: II can prove to you, Judge
Why I have to steal" A college stu
dent accused of shop-lifting said TT
is ancestral throw-back to primi-
tive days.