OMENS OF ILL-LUCK

Evening Star, Issue 23657, 17 August 1940, Page 12

OMENS OF ILL-LUCK

* THIEVES HAVE MANY SUPERSTITIONS No burglar would dream of breaking into a house where a death had recently taken place. Anything that has to do with death is avoided like the plague by the habitual criminal, writes T. 0.8., in ‘ Answers,’ London. The Cornish laundryman who used his coffin! as a safe-must have been well aware of this superstition. He kept all his savings in this,odd receptacle for 11 years, and though the coffin had no lock the money was never touched. The black cat, an omen of good luck to the honest citizen, has the reverse effect on the professional thief. He will try no coup on the day he has unexpectedly met one. Another animal which terrifies him is a blind dog. Numbers count for much with the criminal fraternity. Bach has, or thinks he has, his lucky and unlucky, numbers. A man who has been arrested and convicted for an offence never forgets the number of the policeman who arrested him, and afterward* considers this number to be his hoodoo. Inside a house there are certain omens to be considered. For a clock ta stop while a thief is in a room is the worst of luck. . But, mind you, it doesn’t matter if the clock has stopped before he got into the house. A man must never steal a knife, scissors, or any kind of sharp-edged tools. This belief holds good among pickpockets as well as with the burglary fraternity. A pickpocket was grabbed by a detective just as he had snatched a leather case from a victim? a pocket. When opened at the police station the case was found to contain surgical instruments, including lancets. “Took a knife, did I?’’ snarled the thief. “No wonder I got coped.” Not only must you never steal a knife; you must never rob a one-armed man. The origin of this superstition is not known, but it is very widespread, being held by American "as well as British crooks.