Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-14

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A curious cane tUith movable tUire en-
tennGe IN its ferruLe tUGs used by one
professional shOpIifter to pick up small
UGLuGbLes.
Mrs Petit, taking up the thread of the story,
Il always try honeyed measures first but they
didn't go over with this one so had to appeal
to the conductor, but not before her nausea,
due to an overdose of gin, had attracted his
attention That one was two handfuls" added
this most efficient go-getter
perhaps our easiest catch in weeks was the
case OF the woman who was just about to get
away with three dresses when a nearby shopper,
having seen the theft, tainted dead away and
frightened the shoplifter, so that she dropped
the dresses and ran"
Apparently there is as much class distinction
among shoplifters as among society shoppers,
and these classes are dealt with accordingly.
There is the subway store thief, who is usually
the ordinary type of shoplifter unprofeSsional
and therefore more easily caught. But the
higher-upS in the profession" choose the cor
respondingly high-priced departments The
technique differs materially with the status Of
the crook, as related by this detective
1.-THE typical pickpocket chooses the Christ
mas season as his busy time. Bargain counters
are his open sesame. Many of them pick q
pocketbook and then chivalrously tell their VIC
Tim CnaC her purse is OPEN"
A hint to the Christmas bargain hunter should
be sufficient, but according to Mrs. Petit all
the "funnteS" are right when it comes to the
bargain hunter. She has the proverbial one
track mind. She knows her bargains and she's
out to get them, while her purse bangles tempt
ingly upon her arm to free her hands for the
bargain-table reach Then there is the coat
shopper who invariably places her purse care
fully under her old coat while she Grapes her
self unslspectingly before the mirror. The
sneak thief peers under the old coat on the
nearby chair and successfully walks OF with his
booty, entirely unheeded by the owner.
~ DON'T think our customers realize how
much trouble we take to protect them"
said Mrs. Petit cat sales times and round
Christmas the customers suffer most from this
Sneak-thief menace. It is then that we enlarge
our detective staff. We station men around
with the comic-strip whiskers and advise them
to act like the storybook detective. Women are
used In the same fashion, shopping around,
obviously eying everybody, leaning on counters
and in general acting so ostentatiously that the
most casual observer will recognize them as de-
tectves. The Shoplifter always looks furtively-
about and seeing such detective, moves along
right into the arms of the real detective who
moves unobserved among the shoppers" Mrs
Pettts charming street gown of brown, with
nat to match and pocketbook carefully tucked
under her arm, with her hand upon It at all
OF the store, proved conclusively her foregoing
statement.
I'VE caught woman today whose hands
were laden with diamonds-and what do YOU
suppose she had stolen? Nothing more valuable
than few strings of costume beads and phony
Jewelry She said she stole them for her maid
That's case that needed lot of study, as do
so many of our problem cases. It was said of
one professional crook that he could steal any
thing that wasn't nailed, and a week ago he
deliberately walked out of the store with baby
coach. often think if the cunning successful
thief, OF which there are many would think
out as cleverly methods of running legitimate
business they couldn't help but land at the ton
OF the ladder Most of the people we find are
degenerates in some way, but always unusually
clever. But do you know" she added 'it's got
to be hard racket and, like the business man
OF today, the crooks nerves are all ragged One
told me that for $50 tablecloth she had
stolen she could get only So. Many of the, old.
timers at shoplifting have gone into bootleg
ging and joined underworld gangs for bigger
and better booty However, there are plenty
left who turn the Christmas season into an
orgy of stealing, and 1t is up to the customer
as well as to the detective to do all in his
power to prevent this annual menace"