TEA PARTIES BLAMED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 140, 9 March 1929, Page 26

TEA PARTIES BLAMED

WOBIEN SHOP-LIFTERS HOW GOODS DISAPPEAR (By J.L.G.) “They’ll take anything and everything !” Such was the answer which I received from an official in a large city emporium when I asked him about the type of article most favoured by shoplifters. I had been wandering around the store and had taken stock of the surroundings. There, alluringly displayed on tables and fixtures were all sorts of novelties, and such things as are desired by everyone. Some were cheap and some were expensive. All were there to catch the eyes of prospective customers. Half of them were unguarded and were an open invitation to the shoplifter. The customers In the store all looked perfectly honest. The well-dressed lady trying on a fur stole looked quite honest, just as did a drably-dressed woman who was gazing with yearning eyes at a wrap that would, or rather could, never be hers. She might have been tempted to steal something that was beyond her means —And so might the well-dressed woman, for, my informant told me, “they never seem to care whether they take anything useful or not. They just want to ‘do* you.” “Do you catch many?” I ventured.

“Oh, a good number,” he replied. “I have caught 400 in twenty years, my record being seventeen in one day.” Thoroughly Interested, I asked for more Information, and was rewarded with many startling facts. “They have all sorts of methods, some of them really Ingenious,” he said. “One woman that I caught stole a basket from one department and filled it as she passed through the shop. When she was detected she had thirtytwo articles in the basket As a rule, they wander around the shop, and when the opportunity presents Itself, take an article and conceal it under their clothing. Some will take things that can be folded and put them up their sleeves. Others wander round with a perfectly innocenfrlooking umbrella hanging from their arm by a loop. Into this umbrella is placed anything that takes the owner’s fancy. When muffs were carried, shop lifters used to put all sorts of things into them, but since they have gone out of fashion, they have had to try something else. Some put articles straight into their handbags, and a great many drop them into voluminous shopping bags. “Sometimes,” added my informant, “they go so far as to steal purses from customers’ bags, and wren their purchases. Only recently two ladies had their purses taken. They will take parcels from the counter at times and walk off with them.”*

“Do you catch most of them ” I queried. “Unfortunately, no. Only a small percentage are caught, although a very sharp lookout is kept Big firms lose hundreds of pounds’ worth of goods" in a year through the activities of these people, You see,” he added, “they seldom stop at one theft, but load themselves up with things.”

“They usually hunt in gangs or m pairs,” he continued, “one stealing while the other keeps watch. When working in gangs they got away with goods of every size and description. Sometimes they will come in and mark the position of an article, and then meet in the shop the next day, when they carry off their prize. They will steal boots, shoes, blazers, and even frocks and costumes. One women whom I caught had stored her stolen goods in her child’s pram, and when it was searched there were found three costumes and some shirts, and suits taken from different firms. When her home was searched, £3OO worth of goods were found there. “What do they do with all these things?” was my next question, to which he replied, “They frequently sell them. There was one woman who was caught and whose room was searched. It was then discovered that round the walls were numerous shelves on which she stored the results of her shop-lifting expeditions. She herself was running a sort of private shop. Many of the goods had no identification marks on them, so it was difficult to say to whom they belonged. Others had had the identification'marks removed. “One seldom comes across a male shoplifter,” he went on. “Men usually come in to the shop, make a purchase, and then dash out again.” Finally, I asked him-how the miscreants usually behaved when they were caught. “They nearly always try to bluff you,” was the reply, “and after bluffing has failed they resort to tears. In most cases they will offer anything to be allowed to go. They always say it is the first time such a thing has happened. That may be so, but one usually finds that the harder they are the more artful they’ are. The old hands are the worst where tears are concerned. Personally I have never come across a genuine case of kleptomania. I don’t think that they can’t help stealing. In most cases you find that people are living far beyond their meaas, and their love of pretty things makes them want to get more, so they turn to shoplifting. I blame too many tea parties for a lot of it. Mrs. A. goes round to Mrs. B’s. tea party and sees the hostess or someone else in something new and immediately decides that she must have the same thing. She cannot afford it, so she just takes it. “Of course,” he concluded, “there are some really sad cases where very poor parents have been tempted to steal things for their children, and have succumbed to the temptation. Such cases though are few andd far between.”