The Exploits of ALI BABA and her FORTY THIEVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 14 (Supplement)

The Exploits of ALI BABA and her FORTY THIEVES

J LI BABA and Her Forty Thieves k was the title we gave to a woman and her followers, one of the most extraordinary gangs of high-class shoplifters London has ever suffered. There were at least 40 in the mob, and under the generalship of Ali Baba they made mass raids on the big stores of Regent Street, Oxford Street, and on expensive furriers and costumiers. All the forty thieves wete women, and lived in the same district of South London, where Ali Bab:\ ruled as undisputed queen of crime.

She was a striking woman, tall and powerfully built, and handsome in a massive sort of way. Her first lieutenant was a perfect little doll of a blonde, who looked as though butter would not melt in her mouth.

These forty naughty girls went about their stealing with the orderliness of a well-trained army corps. First, at staff headquarters on the other side of the Thames, the afternoon's campaign .would be plotted out. Then Ali Baba would issno the orders to her forty thieves.

They would all make their way to the West End separately, and converge on the selected store at a pre-arranged hour. Each girl had her role to play. Only" a handful of the forty would do tho actual lifting. Sacks Under Dresses These were women with a great experience of the game, who were expert at slipping a roll of silk, or other costly articles, under their clothes. Each of these "lifters" had elastic-topped sacks concealed under their dresses. Into these the stolen goods were skilfully dropped.

Other women acted as "minders." They crowded around the "lifter" to conceal her movements while the snatch took place, kept watch for stores detectives, and distracted attention from the actual thief.

Immediately a thief made a good haul, the booty would be passed to a "carrier," who was waiting to take it away. Taxis were nearly-always used to remove the hauls, and some members of the gang had; nothing else to do but to see that these vehicles were ready at the appropriate moment.

The Forty Thieves went in only for big stuff They would never dream of stealing anything worth a mere forty

or fifty pounds. Two hundred and three hundred guinea fur. coats were the sort .of things at which they aimed. As soon as the gang had a good haul at one store, the proceeds were rushed off to a receiver, arid Ali Baba and her thieves would go to work at another establishment. Thousands of pounds' worth of goods were being taken from the West End in this way. And not only from the West End. The gang would visit Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and Birmingham on its tours of wholesale theft.

All the forty thieves were smartly dressed, and were seldom short of funds. If one woman was arrested, she

always had the best defence, regardless of cost.

Stores detectives who ran foul of the Forty Thieves found them to bo ex 7 tremely tough customers. If one of the gang was seized by a detective, the others would dash in and rescue her, and moie than one girl detective was roughly handled. They would scratch at their faces, and tear their clothes, and often the suspected shoplifter would make her getaway in the excitement.

Ali Baba and her forty thieves must have cost the stores of the West End a fair-sized fortune. -In the end, like most crooks, she overstepped the mark. Determined to put an end to her reign, the investigation departments of the stores, working'closely with the

C.1.D., declared war on the forty thieves. Watch was kept on thom, and their every move was noted. Raids wore frustrated by timely warnings of their intentions, and, member after member of tho gang was arrested, until, finally, tho forty thieves wore split up and driven out of tho West End. ' v

A few inombers of the gang carried on independently and made desultory raids from timo to time, but the forty thieves as an organisation had como to an end. I doubt if there is any other class of crime in which one finds such a variety of people engaged as in shoplifting. Firstly, shoplifters ore almost invariably women. Men shoplifters are extremely raro. Rich and Poor This is probably duo to two facts, ono being that it is more difficult to steal in a men's shop—you cannot very easily snatch a pair of trousers from a tailor's dummy—and the other, that men very seldom steal for vanity, or because they want to possess the article in question. Men thieve as a business, and the things they tnko generally have 110 greater interest for them than the amount of money for which they can bo sold. Women, however, are often tempted by pretty things, and steal a pair of gloves, a hat, or a dress, so that they can look as nice as other women. It is a curious fact, however, that shoplifters are by no moans predominantly poverty-stricken. Kich and poor, criminals of longstanding, and women of otherwise unimpeachable respectabilityyoung girls and old women, church-going spinsters and clergymen's wives, are sometimes to be found among the ranks of shoplifters.

Titled women, schoolmistresses, nurses; servants, mothers and daughters, sisters and sometimes whole families, indulge in shoplifting. One cannot help feeling sorry for some of the victims of this mania: the poor, underpaid little slaves wno succumb to the temptation to steal that pretty frock which they need so much for the party, but cannot possibly afford. But surprisingly often the first words a woman will utter on being - arrested are, "Oh, please, let me pay for it. I don't know why I did it. And surprisingly often they have lots of money, and could easily have paid for the article.

One of the cruel aspects of shoplifting is that very often, when the shoplifter is not detected, the unfortunate salesgirl is held responsible for the missing articlo. Thousands of Pounds Lost

One reads from time to time of the more striking cases, but shoplifting, as far as the "West End is concerned, is not a matter of sporadic outbreaks. It goe3 'on every day, year after year, ana costs the big stores thousands of pounds per annum. • It is almost impossible to put a stop to it, because tno potential suspects are numberless. Crimes which are carried out by restricted numbers of seasoned criminals can be checked as soon as these criminals become "known," but in shoplifting, in- addition to the professionals, there are hordes of amateurs.

A woman who may never have stolen anything before in her life, picks np a handbag. She glances round and sees that she is unobserved. She walks away, and a little voice says, "Isn't it easy? Whv not have something else?" And a shoplifter has boen born. Sho will go from department to department, risking her life's happiness and that of her family for the sake of half a dozen small articles which she could very easily afford to buy. That is the amazing part about shoplifting. Its devotees are frequently women who are comfortably olf, and sometimes thev are even wealthv.

"Why on earth did you take them?" I have often asked shoplifters of comfortable circumstances. Rooms Filled With Loot "I don't know. It seemed so easj'," they say. I remember one case where two voung women were arrested for shoplifting in the West End. Wo discovered that they were maids in good employment, and that for some timo they had been travelling up to London from the country mansion where they worked, for shoplifting expeditions. Evfcrv Thursday afternoon they would have their "afternoon off," and spend it in this way. A search of their rooms revealed that they were filled with

Continuing Divisional Detective Inspector Jack Henry's entertaining accounts of adventures as. Scotland Yard's "Public Enemy No. 7" —to criminals.

loot; package upon package of stolen articles was found under their beds and in their wardrobes. These girls had none of the connections with the underworld necessary for them to dispose of the goods. They had been thieving purely to add to their hordes of stolen clothing. Sometimes perfectly honest people do carelessly pick up an article, and; forget to have it put down on their,account, and stores detectives have to act with much discretion to avoid the danger of accusing an innocent customer.

I worked on one case where a woman was arrested after she had picked up some small object. It was not until after her arrest that it was discovered that she was a friend of Royalty, and ran a very large account at the store. Mistakes like this, however, seldom occur. Smart Woman Detective A very clever gafig of Spanish shoplifters came to London, and I dealt with the charges against them, although the real credit for their capture belongs to a woman stores detective in the West End. 1 referred to her in my story about the women police. She is really the outstanding woman thiof-catcher in the West End stores: I will call her Miss "G." These shoplifters came over in a mob, and the women who did the lifting had men companions to act as "minders." Two of the women, Fi-an-cisca Diez Castro and Romona Garcia, were caught by Miss "G" at a big store in Oxford Street. They had special pockets made of black silk in tneir fur coats, and capable of holding a great volume of articles. They .were big, extremely powerful women, and other members or the gang were there to help them. The girl detective followed three of the gang into Oxford Street, where they entered a taxi. Miss "G." called the commissionaire, and the women scattered. Garcia threw away some heavy rolls of silk, and then the gang set upon Miss "G." and there was a free fight. Spoke in French

With the aid of the commissionaire Miss "G." overpowered two of them, and they wore detained. They pretended not to be able to know English, and spoke in French, but as we understood this language, we were able to -follow what they were saying. When they were charged, we discovered that thev could speak English. They were beautifully dressed, and had plenty of money on them, including French bank notes, Swiss francs, Italian lire, dollar notes, Irish bank notes, "Bank of England five-pound notes, Bank of London notes, and "100-dollar bills.

Even with all this wealth, they were most indignant when wo made them pay their own fares at their deportation. Women detectives were assigned to escort them to tho docks, but as wo knew that they had male confederates, I sent a husky young detectivesergeant along, too.