SHOP-LIFTING EVIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 7

SHOP-LIFTING EVIL

LOSSES IN ENGLAND. Chiefs of th© detective staffs of D© large London stores will meet in conference with the object of evolving a joint .scheme to frustrate the raids of ahop-liftera, which have shown a marked tendency to increase (*aya a London paper). , Eighty-four firms, with a total capital of approximately £10,000,000, are concerned in the proposal. One firm at a recent stocktaking discovered a deficiency of £20,000. It is suggested that instead, as at present, of a house maintaining it* own detective staff, operating exclusively within tho establishment, a common force should bo created, available for all the firms involved. This would ensure Do mobility which is essential to checking the dcprodai.ions of thieves. According to Mr T. Ernest Jackson, secretary of tho Retail Distributors’ Association, the marauders may be divided into three ola*3€*—victim© of a sudden temptation, kleptomaniacs, and professionals, “ Professionals,” ho said, “seem to bo working more than ever in organised gangs. They aro more active in th© provinces, possibly because they fear they ar© too well known in London. “ One such gang, cone is ting of four women, smartly dressed and of good appearance, is moving through the North of England, and from ten towns we have received complaint*. “ Their last coup was tho theft of a fur coat valued at £4OO. Three of them kept th© small staff in th© department engaged, while tho fourD placed tho coat in a box with, tho firm’© label on—which she had entered carrying—and calmly departed with it. They have evaded capture so far. ” In London a method is being increasingly adopted of telephoning for article* to be sent immediately to the address of a customer, and when these arc despatched on© of tho gang calls on th© customer, explains that th© parcel bos been left in mistake, and thus secures’ possession of it. “ In only a email percentage of the suspected thefts is action taken,” added Mr Jackson, “but it ha* become imperative, in or ter to stamp out the evil, that more prosecutions should be instituted—in tho intereats of tho public as well as of tho stores.” • An obvious defect of the existing system ia that shoplifters and pickpockets, if detected in one emporium, can transfer their activities to another, where they will not bo known to the detective staff. A central fore© would overcome this difficulty by keeping tho detectives, most of whom ar© women, moving not only Drough the London stoves, but through the provincial stores also. If Dis plan ia approved and adopted by the retailers, tho organisation will probably issue to those concerned its own “Hue and Cry.”