SYDNEY'S SHOPLIFTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21067, 29 December 1931, Page 4

SYDNEY'S SHOPLIFTERS.

WOKST EPIDEMIC KNOWN, LOSSES £IOOO A DAY. COSTLY DETECTION SYSTEM. r FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY. Dec. 24. With J4 persons charged within five hours one day this week—with 71 arrests in five days and with 120 charges sinco December 7, Sydney lias been experiencing the worst epidemic of shoplifting in its history. The figures are amazing, arid they relate to the whole of the metropolitan area, but do not take into account the large number of petty cases in which no police action is taken by the proprietors. . It is estimated that within the last month well over £15,000 worth of goods has been stolen and during this week, when Christmas shopping has been at its height, it is likely that the losses have been not less than £IOOO a day. The figures seem incredible, but they are vouched for by one of the ]ead:ng detectives. whose estimate is endorsed by r<>« sponsible shop inspectors. Stalls of Detectives. - It- is not only the big stores that are suffering, but the smaller ones as well, particularly those in which the system of detection has not been well organised. It is safe to say that for every shoplifter caught scores escape. The evil has become so pronounced that the departmental stores employ a staff of detectives who mingle with the crowd as ordinary shoppers, all the time keeping a watchful eye on the hundreds of customers. The detection system in one great city store costs the firm £SOOO a year—" and it is worth it," said the manager the other day. He explained that the shoplifters indulged in all sorts of tricks and that they were very difficult to catch. The inspectors bad to proceed in every instance with the utmost care for fear of making a mistake and so accusing a perfectly honest customer of a crime when he or she had in no way offended. Nothing is too big, it would seem, and nothing too small to warrant attention from the shoplifter. The other day a woman was sent to gaol for twelve months for the theft of beads valued at sixpence. Hut it was her thirtieth offence in three years. The strangest case for many a long day was mentioned in the Court the other day when a woman was charged with the theft of a ham. She had concealed it beneath her skirt. That ham cost her 6ix months' imprisonment with hard labour, so she is unlikely to have ham for Christmas after all. Women's Pitiful Tales.

Many of the women who are caught tell piliful tales to the magistrates, but the magistrates have become hardened and are less lenient to-day than they used to be. Among the shoplifters women predominate, and last week a woman of 75 was arrested. The police alleged that she had been a shoplifter for 10 years. 5A hen her room was searched scores of articles, the majority of them worth about on 9 shilling each, were found. A favourite dodge among women is for one to spread out a roll of silk and hold it up to the light as though examining it. It acts as a cloak for her confrere while she snatches other rolls from tha counter and crams them into a suitcase.