CONFIDING CROOKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2514, 15 December 1927, Page 6

CONFIDING CROOKS.

WHEW THEY KICK THEMSELVES. GIVING THE GAME AWAY. (By an ex-Police Inspector.) Criminals are extraordinary folk. Some are secretive, while others throw caution to the winds. Some are 80 per cent, wily and 20 per cent, simple; others reverse those proportions. Some would not trust their own mothers; others will chatter to anybody. One night a neighbour knocked me up to ask if I would get a doctor as his wife had been taken ill. I ; slipped on an old overcoat, a muffler, and cap and went along. The doctor promised to come in ten minutes, so | I strolled back. Suddenly a man sidled up to me. “Want to earn an easy quid, mate?” he asked. I countered with: “What doing?” He whispered back: “Fve just cracked an easy crib over the road and got a heap of stuff in the scullery ready to shift. Give up a hand with it and there’s a quid for you.” CREDULOUS CRACKSMEN. We entered the house through the scullery window, and then I disclosed my identity. Mr. Sikes said many things, but erred not from the truth when he called himself a “blitherin’ fool.” At the station, when asked his name, he implied: “Put me down as ‘Simple Simon,’ inspector.” During a holiday on the South Coast, I met a man in an hotel bar. “I’ve a game on,” he confided, and gave particulars. “For a clear getaway all that’s wanted is a copper—not a real one, of course —to pretend to ‘pinch’ me. I could get a uniform from London by saying its for theatricals. You’d fit the job fine. There’s thirty quid if you’ll take it on.” I pretended to hesitate, but appeared to succumb when be offered forty pounds. He had a shock when he was arrested by a real constable, and invited the inspector and sergeant kick him hard for being a fool. On another occasion, in plain clothes, I was in a crowd —for a purpose. Suddenly a gold watch was pushed into my band. “Slick off with it,” whispered a man, “and bring it along to-night at the Angel. The ‘cops’ are on for having me. Get off, quick.” He was a greatly surprised pickpocket when I seized his wrist and handed him over to a uniformed constable. “Thought you was ‘Small Jim,’ ” he grumbled. “You’re just like him, side face.” “You should have had a front view,” I told him smiling at his dismal countenance. He agreed, and was taken to the station calling himself uncomplimentary names. THE POLITE STRANGER. Three plain-clothes men were detailed for special duty at a race meeting. Returning to town much later than usual, they had but one fellow-passenger, an elderly mar.. The three were soon talking “shop,” arguing about police, methods, and so on. Suddenly the man patronisingly intervened. He knew all about police and thenways, and proceeded to relate several of his exploits. At Waterloo he was shadowed and arrested an hour later after the ’phone had been busy. When he discovered he had given himself awuy to three “tecs” and not, as be thought, to three crooks like himself, he said many things. One —I made a bloomin’ mug of myself? —was true.