SUMMER SALES AND SHOPLIFTERS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 127, 21 February 1908, Page 3

SUMMER SALES AND SHOPLIFTERS

: Some strange facts about the thieving propensities. of women when the sales are onat.the 'big shops, have. Seen brought ,to..light in .'Sydney. (writes-'i'Oristina'' ,in the "Aus-, : ■tralasian"). The largo drapery firms have, '.it is';.estimated,-.£IOUCI worth of goods .stolen :by . ; , women, thieves., Valuable laces, and .silks are exposed to view; at''sale-;time,-;as: shopkeepers know the dislike, honest .customers :h.avo to buying "a pig in a poke." Ladies 7 feel abound to handle..materikls to satisfy : themselves tho goods aro-all . they seem to.be.Articles.in :glass cases do not sell readily.' .Tlio regular-, shoplifter.gerierallyfhas an;umbrella or 'a. capacious -basket,' into' -whiclr'she;', pops, - when, nobody] is ' looking, .'anything -that happens . to, .take 'her fancy. . Goods of incrediblo bulkiriess,. which, :one' would think, must giy<S the thief away, are i constantly , concealed in , this mannar. jA woman got out of a shop with a'stolen skirt one (.lay .not. long . ago. '.Last week' a boa 'and .some' laco were hidden .by a woman- in. her underskirt pocket;, but underskirt, pockets'aro,, clumsy, to deal with at.the best or tifnes, and'oh this occasion a private' detective was watching tho lady: Slio was fined £3. Clever shoplifters'usually gently slide the articles from the counter , to their baskets or, open umbrellas, aiid then leave the shop, as quickly and unobtrusively as possible. A. woman last week took, a coat from a rack inHlio' mantlo department in one of the shops, vtbre'Voft" the ''tickdt,''.and,.,.calmly; •putting on tho'' giirmcnt, walked away.-! Acustomer saiv' her,"and' eventually the thief was sent to gaol for 21 days, in accordance' ■with the stipendiary magistrate's threat, "Shoplifters shall bo sent, to prison. henceforth."' A friend of . miiio was guilty of an, unconscious theft one" day recently.'' Sho : bought a wrist-purse aftor much thought, and dangled on hor arm a variety, of bags and purses, to "see how they would.lpok." When she got home sho discovered no fewer 'than .fire, assorted-, wrist-purses' : lianging oil her She hadn't noticed them, and when •she hastily returned them the shop assistant admitted'that sho hadn't noticed, either!