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With thousands of dollars' worth of goods lying unprotected on the counters, it is really no wonder that some are tempted to reach out and take what they want." "Yes," explained Donnelly, "the shop-lifter is the department- store's greatest unsolved problem. Why, sir, she gets more plunder in a year than the burglar. She's costing the stores over two million dollars.
As soon as they were there a woman detective was sent for, and the supposed shop-lifter was taken behind a screen and searched thoroughly. While this was being done Faith was bursting with indignation. "Just think of an innocent person being subjected to such an outrage!" she cried. "Oh, Mr. Denton, is there not some other way to do this?"
His "pal" then quietly pulled them along the floor, out through the door, into the street and decamped. A search of the thief who remained behind disclosed nothing and, as proof was thus wanting, he had to be discharged. The female shop-lifter is generally a woman well known to the police, as her picture will, in nearly every case, be found in the Rogues' Gallery at Police Headquarters.
Coming to specific charges, the writer said further on: "A handsome female, a Broadway shop-lifter, recently testified that although she had been desirous of reforming her life for a year past, she had been totally prevented from so doing by the extortions of certain members of the detective force, who threatened to reveal her former history unless she 'came down handsomely, and in order to 'come down, as they styled it, she was obliged to resort to her old disgraceful business."
So many small articles lie exposed in the store that a thief might easily make off with something of value but for this watchfulness. Private detectives are employed by the principal houses, and as soon as a professional shop-lifter enters, he or she is warned off the premises by the detective, whose experience enables him to recognize such persons at a glance.
Many are ex-policemen, and make up the pack that hunts the well-dressed lady shop-lifter, the gentle pickpocket, the agile burglar, the Paris Apache, and the common murderer of the Bill Sykes type; they are good dogs in their way, if you do not press them, though they are rather apt to give tongue.
With one of these muffs, shop-lifting is so easy as to be successfully practiced by novices, as not one store-walker in a thousand would suspect that his counters could be worked through a muff worn as these are when in action. Thus equipped, the expert female shop-lifter sallies out. Generally, she dresses rather expensively.
Even the small shops of Third and Eighth avenues, and Avenues A and B, are not free from the visits of this class of thieves, and no stores are exempt from the imposition of their tribute. Before leaving home on a thieving excursion to the stores the female shop-lifter carefully and systematically prepares her clothing, and sees that it is in proper form and ready for business.
The fact is notorious, and easily demonstrated by the records of the police courts, that "a shop-lifter once, a shop-lifter always."
It is a lamentable psychological idiosyncrasy that, despite the most earnest and apparently sincere resolutions to lead an honest life, the female shop-lifter, intent on making a legitimate purchase, is incapable of withstanding the temptation offered by a display of fancy articles. She will usually attempt to purloin some trinket or other and be caught again.
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