SPECIALISTS IN CRIME

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12425, 20 April 1926, Page 3

SPECIALISTS IN CRIME

UNDERWORLD ETIQUETTE “HARLEY STREET” THIEVES SCOTLAND YARD’S LIST The underworld, like the medical profession, Ims a. “Harley street” of its own—criminals who specialise in one particular class of crime. These criminal “specialists” devote the whole of their lives to some special branch of roguery, robbery, or swindle. “Harley street” criminals are registered at Scotland Yard in different categories, according to the class of crime in which they specialise. The files in the Convict Record Office contain many remarkable instances of men and women who have been convicted scores of times for the same class of offence. One of the most persistent of the women crime-specialists is known as “Polly the Pickpocket.” She is a pursesnatcher of international repute, and, in addition to her many convictions in London, she has been sentenced on the Continent and in nearly all the leading provincial cities and towns. She has never been known to commit any other offence. RUGS FROM MOTOR-CARS “Jimmy the Rug Thief” is another exclusive one-crime “specialist.” He haunts London’s motor-car “parks,” and whenever he sees a valuable rug lying in an unattended car, lie slips off with it under his macintosh. “Jimmy” estimates the value of a rug with the eye of an expert, and some of his hauls have been worth £IOO.

London’s army of professional womeu shoplifters is divided into many groups. Some are tempted only by others steal nothing but lingerie. One woman shoplifter specialises in pure silk stockings; nothing else tempts her. There are expert women thieves in London who devote the whole of their criminal careers to stealing handbags in churches and chapels. The great stores, which are the favourite hunting ground of the ordinary shoplifters, are apparently immune from these pests. There are criminals who never move outside the confines of their daily haunts, and there are others who are continually on the move. The6© “expert travelling thieves,” as they are called, go up and down the country like commercial travellers, and invariably they specialise in one class of theft—watches, tiepins, or wallets. “Billy the Barrow Thief” would not be tempted by a Rolls-Royce left unattended outside the common lodging housGj where he lives, but a wheelbarrow would soon be reported “stolen in the street” if he cam© along and saw his opportunity of getting away. This “specialist” deals exclusively in wheelbarrows, like his fellow-profes-sional in the Midlands who specialises in step-ladders. THE “DARTMOOR SHEPHERD.” The ‘‘Dartmoor Shepherd,” the wily old church robber, is a striking insi anoe of the specialist-criminal, and whenever lie stands in the dock it Is always for the same crinie—breaking open offertory boxes. The old shepherd is not the only church-robber “specialist.” One thfef has-been going round the London and country churches for years stealing nothing but . organ pipes. Professional safe-breakers aro few and exclusive, because otf the scientific knowledge necessary to open the modern burglar-proof safe. Once a safebreaker always a safe-breaker in nine cases out of ten, and seldom anything else. Grime-specialists are indignant when accused of another class of crime. A notorious hotel-thief once made « vehement protest from the dock when a woman declared he had slipped out of her flat with £2. There is such a thing as “professional etiquette” even in the underworld !