TRICKS OF CLEVER JEWELLERY THIEVES.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 6, 23 January 1912, Page 2

TRICKS OF CLEVER JEWELLERY THIEVES.

I The “crook’’ of to-day who makes a speciality of jewel robberies sessee nerve and ingenuity which, applied to more legitimate pursuits, would assuredly earn for him a fortune. Of course, there is the clumsy thief with very limited brain, who smashes the jeweller’s window with half a brick, hoping to be able to decamp with a handful of jewels ere passers-by and the jeweller’s assistants have recovered from their surprise. The up-to-date jeweller, however, checkmates the window-smasher by hanging an extra plate of glass from the ceiling by chains just inside the window pane. The force of the brick might break the outside glass, but it would be checked by the inner pane, and even if it did break the latter, the thief would have two jag- ' ged holes to put his hand through—--1 a difficult job to manage successfully. ! And then there is the equally clumsy thief who enters a jeweller’s shop, ostensibly to purchase jewels, and endeavours to bolt with a number which he snatches off the counter, quite forgetting that there are such ' things as automatic closing doors, 1 and that while one assistant is serving, there are usually one or two others seemingly deeply engaged in various work connected with the 1 shop, but in reality standing in close proximity to the door, and ready to circumvent any such trickery. The clever jewellery thief, however, adopts quite different tactics. Take for instance, the man who a short time ago became known as a regular, if not a very wealthy, customer at a West-end jeweller’s. He frequently made small purchases, and admired lat the same time the more costly jewels displayed in the cases on the counter. One day he asked to look more closely at a certain diamond necklace which he had previously admired, and the obliging jeweller took it out of the case to show him. After duly praising it, the custoI mer handed it back, and the jeweller would have taken no further note of the incident hod he not happened to j notice that the necklace had attached to it a tag of buff colour. All goods in the shop bore white tags, and he immediately surmised that something was wrong. The man was 1 detained, and search revealed that he had the original necklace, while the one handed back to the jeweller was an imitation. It appeared that during the several visits paid by the customer he had made a .close 'Study of the necklace as it lay in the case, taking in the ' minutest details, and from memory had an imitation made from paste ■diamonds, correct enough in every particular to deceive almost anyone ; land this he had exchanged for the [real necklace while admiring it. Had. he not made the small mistake of attaching to it a wrong-coloured tag the jeweller might still be hemoan- | ing the loss of a £SOO necklace, I This palming of real jewels and banding back imitations is a favourite game with jewellery thieves, and only be the greatest care can. loss at their hands be prevented. An elaboration of this trick has, by the way, been tried very successfully both in London and New York. A smartlydressed woman with a pretty child — usually a girl—drives up to a fashionable jeweller’s and asks to inspect a selection of stones. Naturally the child displays a certain curiosity, which is apparently checked by the lady, who frequently admonishes the youngster with the words : “No, darling ; you must not touch these i things. Keep your hands away.” | The child seems so innocent of wrong-doing that the jeweller suspects nothing, and perhaps engages the child in conversation, and it is while so doing that he. offers the lady an opportunity of substituting some paste stones for the real. Or, if a j chance occurs, the lady will distract 1 the jeweller’s attention from the child for a moment and allow the, precocious youngster, who, of course, j has been trained for the part, to i effect a substitution of the imitation for the real. (

And then there is the old dodge, still worked very successfully, of affixing a piece of cobbler’s wax in the hollow heel of a boot, accidentally knocking oil a ring or so from the counter, treading on it, and, after submitting to a search by the suspicious jeweller and threatening all sorts of legal proceedings for the indignity, walking out with the spoils, worth perhaps £4O or £SO. The half-eaten apple scheme is also an old one, but even now is worked successfully. The operator enters a store munching an apple, and, -while examining uncut stones, presses one into the apple, casually saunters to the door, and thro'ws it out. Then he returns and buys a little something. His confederate on the outside gets the apple and the stone. The umbrella-carrying thief is also another one to look out for. It is easy to sweep goods off the counter into the folds, and the alert salesman always keeps his eyes open to the stranger who handles a handkerchief while looking over goods but apparently does not put that article to its natural use.—“Tit-Bits.”