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expeneive cloaks—the most marketable
of all shoplifting loot. So watchful had
store detectives and police departments
become that ordinary plans for the theft
of heavy pieces of fur were no longer
feasible. One by one the tricks of the
fur thieves had been revealed and cir
cumvented, It was necessary to find
some new way of foiling the watchful
store detectives. And a plan which this
agent was instructed to devise must be
one which could be practised in & num
ber of stores, almost simultaneously, so
that profitable spoils might be gathered
in before it could be detected and
guarded against.
In this particular store in which hap
pened the incident of which Ethel Durant
related, this agent espied a window.
Watchful for any detail he looked out
this window and saw that it opened upon
the roof far below. There was no way
for a burglar to enter this window from
the outsids, for it opened out through a
gheer wall fifty or sixty feet above the
roof below, therefore there were no iron
bars, and its lock was only the ordinary
xindow lock, easily sprung from the in
de.
In & flash the fertile brain of this ex
ert ‘‘planner’’ saw the possibilities of
{hnt window, He visited other stores
fu New York, Boston, Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh. In several of these stores
he found a similar opportunity—a win
dow that opened out onto a lower roof,
or even into an areaway or onto a side street
where there was not mueh pedestrian traffie.
His method in relation to each store in which
he found an inviting window was the same.
Let us follow Ethel Durant’s description of the
ensuing activity as it affected the store and
the theft which is described above. He re-
ported to his chief with a complete pencilled plan of the
room from which the window opened, with a drawing of
the position of show cases, counters, stock eabinets and
doors. He knew, also, how many salespeople were usually
on duty in that room. What was their method of display-
ing cloaks. How many customers were, as a rule, in that
room at certain hours of the day. And he knew also how a
mam could reach the roof below and leave it unobserved—
by # stairway reaching up from the top floor of the lower
building.
Like a stage director arranging the scenes of a new
p{lay, the master criainal carefully laid out a similar room.
ere was the window, marked off. Here were the counters
wheze small pieces of furs were displayed. Here stood the
stock cabinets, where the expensive cloaks hung behind
glass doors. Here was the cash desk, and here was the.
door which opened into the room. With the stage set,
the actors were called in. First there were the ‘‘sales
people”’—sa man— ‘head salesman’’—and two young
women. Then there were ‘‘customers’’—three or four
men and women who were instructed to act as if they
were in that room being served by the ‘‘salespeople,’
while they examined different pieces of fur on the make
believe counters and in suppositious cabinets.
federates Stole the $23,000 Fur Cloak
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“] think I shall like this one better " said Ethel Durant, as the sales
man draped the second coat about her shoulders. Meanwhile her con
federate was do.ftly rolling the other cloak into a compact bundle.
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While Ethel Durant paid the salesman a deposit on the garment he had
tult removed from her shoulders her confederate tossed the $23,000
undle out of the window into the arms of the man waiting below.
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Apparently this woman (2) is a customer. She has DOught SeVers: WL A P BD' W R
thhf-.’:: difforent sounters, and Is wryl-‘--o-}-‘ her P“v“"- la /@’) e v/ ‘-‘ N M 3 /‘[/
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make jokes about him, not knowing that he is the cleveres s 4 £
O A hies of detectives has. He is closely watching the suspicious actions of the pair next him. . s a eAN
' Onto the scene now entered Ethel Durant, selected by
the chief because of her poise and trained demeanor, and
a cleverness at shoplifting which already had earned her
a reputation among the police of a score of big cities.
She asked the ‘‘head salesman’’ to show her a cloak, and
with a eloak of her own, the actions were gone through.
She watched the other ‘‘shoppers’’ and “‘salespeople’’ who
were instructed to act as ifP she were not in the room, as
if they were busy wholly at their own affairs. After the
Durant woman there entered the young woman who,
later, was to play an important part in the actual accom
plishment of the plot underway.
~ This young woman was instructed to ask for an inex
peunsive neckpfiope, one of those such as were displayed ov
a counter facing and near the window that opened on the
foof. At a moment which, after much rehearsing, Ethel
Durand decided was the psycholcigical time, she ‘tossed
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This “customer’” (4) is examining a handkerchief. Keally he is the chielf of Ihe store s qGetectives. '
When he turns to get a better light o, the texture of the linen he is mlly signall'sg the floor walker (14) N
to stop the fashionably dressed woman just about to leeve the store. “Please step up to the office,
madam,” the floorwalker will say poli!olLMll firmly. When the woman reaches the office this “custom
er’” will be there to ask her to open her bag in which she has secreted several very costly blouses.
A woman detective (5) is watching a shoplifter (6) who is stealing an expensive watch while two of
his confederates (7) are keeping the salesman busy.
her cloak—presumably a rich, costly garment, such
as would ufi for several thousand dollars—onto the
counter near where her confederate was looking
at a neckscarf. The ‘‘salesman’’ waiting upon her
had turned his back for an instant. The ‘‘sales
woman®’ attending the confederate also had been
caused to turn her back at just this moment. The
confederate picked ‘? the cloak Durant had thrown
onto the counter and tossed it through the dummy
window—the place where the store window would
be. Then the rest of the seene was rehearsed—just
as Ethel Durant and the confederate actually ew
acted it, as described above, in the fur store. These
rehearsals occupied several days—the coufederate
had to be trained to correctly throw a heavy fur
coat. Durant had to practice tossing a cloak to one
side, apparently carelessly, yet with such skill that
‘it fell upon the right spot on the display counter,
and fell folded so the confederate would lose no
time in picking it up and throwing it in a closely
folded bundle through the open window—the con
federate had even to be trained to unlock this win
duw¢.nd raise it so stealthily that the other ‘‘cus
tomers’’ and *‘salespeople’’ would mnot mnotice
her.
When Durant and her assistant were properly
coached, they selected an hour at which time there
were likely to be just emough customers in the
real room to keep the salespeople busy—no so many
that some one of them would be bound to witness
any surreptitious acts.
Ethel Durant thoroughly familiar now with the
room where fur cloaks were displayed, donned a
most impressive afternoon street gown, hired a ri
vate limousine and drove to the store. She n»Eml
for the cloaks and was given at once into the hands
of a capable salesman, he who had been impersonated
at the rehearsals. A few moments later the woman
confederate also entered the store—coming afoot,
and asked to be shown those things which nge knew
were also displayed in the same room with the cloak:
-neckpieces.
‘When she had wrapped the most expensive eos
that was shown her, the rhink and sable, around her
() 1919, luterpational 'uvuq Bervice, v
This man (8) appears to be a humble er at work. He has just leaned over
seemingly to polish the bottom of a stuaj of brass. This is a signal to another de
tective (.) that at “one counter straight ahead there is a woman—with Lelpers.” The
detective 'isnuod quickly discovers a woman shoplifter (10) busily hiding valuable
pieces of silk while either side of her is a confederate keeping a clebk busy. When
this trio leaves the store the detective (9) will arrest them.
A floorwalker (11) has been very watchful of a “mother and little daughter.”
He has seen the girl, being trained no doubt to become a clever aide to the master
eriminal, hide dozens of small things—llike handkerchiefs and Irish linen collars—in
a bag suspended under her short skirts.
‘lhn the busy salesman’s back is turned this shoplifter (12) deftly fills her
bag with whole bolts of the most expensive velvet trimmings.
shoulders, the Durant girl decided this was the garment she
would steal—it was one which could be immediately sold
for a large percentage of its actual value. At the proper
moment she asked that the second coat be again shown
her. The salesman, very much impressed, hurried away,
as told above. Quick as the dart of a mountain trout Ethel
Durant threw aside the beautiful cloak she still retained
about her shoulders, tossing it on a table near the win
dow, which had been surreptitiously opened by, the con
federate. The salesman’s back was turned but an in
stant, and there were other salesmen and saleswomen in
the room, but each was busy—Ethe] had convinced herself
of that. In that instant the confederate lifted the heavy
cloak from the table and tossed it out the window, just as
she had rehearsed. It fell to the empty roof below The
third confederate, a man, was waiting there. ?uick'y he
gathered in the cloak amd n a trice hdd disap
peared.
Probably that cloak was sold for $15,000. Ethel Du
rant didn’t know. She was paid SI,OOO for her share in
the theft of it. The woman confederate was paid SI,OOO.
The man on the roof was paid SSOO. Other confederates,
including the agent who first discovered the window,
were paid SSOO each. Where the balance went to Durant
woman didn’t know. She never met the master criminal.
She only did what his agents ordered her to do. She was
not worried about her arrest——she was inelined to be jest
ful with the officials about it. ‘I shall be freed,’”’ she de
clared. A few days after her arrest she was liberated
under bail deposited for her by an unknown agent. She
forfeited her* bail and now is at large.
This is just one incident in the search for ‘‘ America’s
Master Criminal,”’ the chief of the amazing organization
of shoplifters which has been found to be operating in a
score of large cities, acting under orders as precise und
effective as the orders of an ariny’s high command, the one
masterful brain which far surpasses the boldness .v in
genuity of a Raffles or an Arsene Lupin.
When Ethel Durant was caught in Boston she had
confronted the one situation which not even the Master
Criminal could provide against. She hal been recogized
as she was leaving the store by a store deteetive who was
familiar with photogruphs of her, In the Boston store
there was a window from the fur salesroom which opened
onto an areaway. A way had been found for the ‘‘out
side”’ confederate to enter this areaway from below, to
wait there until & fur cloak eame hurtling down into his
arms, and then to make his escape. In every other store
where these expensive cloaks, or rare sets of soles and
mufls had been stolen during the period just before Ethel
Great Britaln Rights Reserved
hasabi o o Ma gl e ie o eo e P s
startled the officials of nearly every large city in
the United States. Out in the field there are hun
dreds or perhaps thousands of men and women
who have been trained in & new school to steal
from, the stores and shops which women frequent, and
where the apparel and ornaments dear to femininity are
sold. From these shops this baud of shoplifters, directed
by the unseen hand, is gathering in millions of dollars in
loot every month, its operations extending from New
York to Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh and
the other large eities east of the Mississippi River.
This organization is divided into departments. Confes
sions so far proeured by the police and other evidenee
available have clearly defined these departments. First,
there is an inner organization, which devotes its activi
ties wholly to the theft of silks—the designation ‘‘silks”’
really including rich laces, satins, damasks and rare vel
vets. These goods always are a staple article. They may
be sold in bulk at any time to questionable dealers who
like to purchase silks, satins and laces from any source
whatever so long as they can purchase under the market
price. .
In New York City alone during the last twelve
months department stores, wholesale houses and specialty
shops have lost $7,000,000 worth of goods of this char
acter,
During the last six months $200,000 worth of jewelry
has disappeared from the safes and counters of New
York's department stores. Pittsburgh rof)orts the loss,
in all its stores together, of another SIOO,OOO worth.
Boston stores have suffered almost as heavily.
To cope with this tremendons organization of daring
thieves who are Yeaping millions of dollars in illgotten
profits with the public as the ultimate sufferer, an elabo
rate system of espionage has been built up by an associa’
tion of the chief detectives of all the country’s great
stores. One by one the tricks of the master griminal are
being ferreted out, his methods and the methods of his
band exposed and checkmated. This counter organization
of ““an army of defense,’’ reaching into every nook and
corner of every big store in the land, is one of the most
fascinating developments of the modern day way of meet
ing the dangerous eriminal upoa his own ground. It will
be described on these puges next week, together with sowe
of the most unique ‘“raids’’ upon department stores ve
cently conducted by the mysterious master eriminal him
salf.
(To Be Continued Next Sunday.) v
* Durant’s arrest, it was later dis.
covered that there was a win
dow, with a counter near it,
from which the furs to be
stolen had been tossed out
to the confederate outside.
By this careful planning and
elaborate rehearsing of new
plots shoplifting has been
lifted from petty offense the
pastime of little thieves, such
as it was thought to be but
a few years ago, to a mag
nitude of operations which had