SHOP-LIFTING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1912, Page 8

SHOP-LIFTING.

LESS NOW THAN FORMERLY.' AUCKLAND'S EXPERIENCE. [BY 'XELEGUAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] AUCKLAND, This Day. As was indicated during a recent police prosecution, a. good deal of shop-lifting goes on in Auckland. Enquiry among a number of business people showe that the evil is regarded as inseparable from the carrying on of businese in a. lajge city. It was stated by ono business man that for some reason or other lee? shop-lifting goes on now than was the case a short time ago, and this testimony was corroborated by others. The manager of, a largo drapery eetablishment in the city assured a Herald j representative that his firm's plan of . trusting the public answered well ; as a general rule, the ordinary run df customers may safely be assumed to be honest, while a little practice soon enables one to pick the type requiring special watching. At sale time there is more opportunity for petty thieving, and undoubtedly more cases of it occur; but the increase in the number of floorwalkers watching that all customers are being attended to enables a fairly close survey of the stock to be maintained. No special precautions are taken, however, and no one of thoeo approached seemed to think that his confidence in the honesty of the general public was extensively abused. At the same time, in a reminiscent mood the experienced business man can recall cases, some astounding because of their audacity, some surprising by reason of their apparent lack of motive. Of the latter kind, an instance given was concerning a woman of good family and in a position to satisfy every reasonable want, who took considerable risk for the sake of a comparatively insignificant remnant of cloth. This 6he picked up off the counter and wrapped up in paper, getting away safely from the counter attendant, only to be stopped by the manager, who happened to be in the vicinity. No prosecution followed in that ca6e. Another inexplicable and rather heartless phase of _ the matter is the way some mothers utilise children in arms as aids in the committal of a theft. Cases have been known of women entering a shop carrying a child, placing it on the counter while making some trifling purchase, and on leaving pick ud with the child some small article which had been lying about. Some of the cases detected are almost amusingly audacious. In a large boot and shoe shop in the city a woman made a particularly brazen attempt to obtain a couple of pairs of shoes at an extra special reduction. Picking two pairs up from the stock displayed outside the window, she wrapped them loosely in a handkerchief, and walking up to the shop, coolly proceeded to buy ,two pairs of laces for them. "We got back the shoet>," he said, " but (with a tinge of regret in his voice) wo lost the i sale of the lacai." An equally audacious case was observed by the owner of a fancy goods shop in Karangahape-road. In this instance the culprit — again a woman—-re-moved a box of «mall brooches and a jewelled comb from the counter, departing unobserved. Had she not distributed a, number of the brooches among some children, who readily admitted where they had come from, she might never have been connected with the loss of the articles. A little later on, however, she returned to the shop wearing in her hair the identical comb which had disappeared. Summed up, the testimony of business people goes to "show that the shoplifting evil is not increasing to any extent. It does exist, and is considered likely to continue in existence, but the action of some people in prosecuting those they catch is considered to have a salutary effect. Of the thefts which take place inside shops, the delinquents seem generally to be women, ivhile men appear more prone to make a casual selection from the wares displayed outside.