MISS SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3334, 16 August 1926, Page 7

MISS SHERLOCK HOLMES.

IN LONDON SHOPS

Miss Sheiflock Holmes has made good. Young women detectives are proving their worth every day of thcweek to the great London shops that are emploing them in increasing numbers against the übiquitous shoplifter. Sometimes the role of the girl detective is that of an ordinary shop assistant, and she is able to play the part so well that customers seek her out to attend to their requirements. Often, indeed, it suits her purpose to carry out the role of the obliging assistant, for while she is displaying silks and satins she is able to keep a close watch on shoppers whose movements arouse suspicion in her alert mind. She is just as much at home, however, in the role of the fashionable shopper. No one challenges her as she Hits from one department to another, occasionally stopping to have a short conversation with one of the assistants while she scans the crowd.

Nearly all the great stores in Oxford street, ilegent street, and Kensington have a “Miss Sherlock Holmes” on the staff, and in the suburbs, too, in Peckham, Balhara. Brixton, and Croydon, the woman detective is employed to protect the firms’ good and the handbags of their customers. Shoplifting entails enormous losses every year to the great drapery houses of London. The manager of one Oxford street stoic stated recently that his (inn lost nearly CIO,OOO a year through shoplifting. Shoplifters are divided into two classes-—professionals and amateurs. It is the amateur woman shoplifter—the woman who steals on the impulse of the moment —who cause the most anxiety.

Most of the professional shoplifters are known to the women who police London’s stores. On notorious thief once carried out a raid in Oxford street out of sheer pique. The woman detective met her outside the London Sessions. “Hello,—, you haven’t been to see ns lately.” the detective remarked. The woman scowled and evidently taking it as a challenge, retorted, “No, but I will.

She hurried oil. and collecting three or lour of her confederates drove up to the shop in a cab. An hour later the detective walked along Oxford street on her way back to the shop, saw the shoplifter and her gang in the cafe. She guessed at once wind had happened, and a visit to the silk department confirmed her suspicions. Eight rolls of silk had vanish'd. The shoplifter and her confederates were soon rounded up before they had a chance to dispose of their booty.