Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/578

568 have left in the hands of the stall outside. The thieves always enter the shop when there are most customers in it. Their visits are paid incessantly to new shops, and to fresh proprietors of old shops; but they fight shy of old established shops, the inmates of which are well known to the thieves as being “too deep.”

“Dob-sneaking,” or ribbon-stealing, is very lucrative, and some of the females confine themselves almost entirely to this pursuit; at any rate, the cleverest thieves always aim at the least bulky and most costly goods, which will perhaps be the reason why they call shop-robbing “crushing a nut.” Ribbon-stealing is done by two women. They go into a milliner’s or linen-draper’s shop and ask to look at some ribbon. A drawer full of ribbons is laid on the counter; the wire now, as by accident, lets fall, partly over the box, that very convenient shawl of hers, which hides the work of her wire hand. While the wire is pretending to inspect the ribbons, her companion and stall engages the attention of the shopgirl as much as possible. Then she politely asks to see another assortment of ribbons, and so the trick is repeated as long as they can carry it on. To keep the waiter “sweet,” they will produce a pattern, and say they would rather have some ribbon like it. If the shopkeeper has any like the pattern they purchase some; if not, the game is up, and the thieves walk off with the stolen ribbons. There is a practice among young wandering thieves which they call cotter-holing—drawing by a piece of wire anything they can pull through the cotter-holes, but this is only done at petty shops in small towns. When the thieves get caught in shops, they make desperate efforts to “work back” and “work to-rights.” They will throw the stolen thing anywhere to get it out of sight, but their best dodge is to drop it into the dress or pocket or basket of some honest and unsuspecting customer.

The thieves make a good deal when they go shopping by cheating in money matters. They will purchase some trifle, pay for it with a good sovereign, receive their change and go away. Shortly after they will return to the shop and say that the master has made a mistake in the change, given them half-a-crown for five shillings, or something of that sort; or they will say, “I gave you a sovereign,” when it was in reality only a half-sovereign, and they will press for the change out of a sovereign. Should the shopkeeper resist, they will quarrel, threaten to expose him for cheating them, and say they will never come to his shop again, and no one else shall come if they can help it.

“Bustling” or “bouncing” is a common practice amongst them. Two or three well-dressed women will enter a shop, but not together. It is a frequent practice for thieves working together to appear to be the greatest strangers to one another: they neither by sign nor look recognise each other, but are as cold and distant as if they had never seen one another in their lives before. When the “bouncers” are all in the shop the game begins. One of them will make a costly purchase, spend a long time in looking at something else, and then prepare to leave. “Nothing more to-day, thank you; I paid you for this, you know”—whereas she has not paid for it. The dispute begins, and the thief says, “I gave you such and such a coin” (say a crown-piece); “and if you will look into your till, you will find that very piece.” She then appeals to one or two ladies who happen to be standing near her; and these ladies are sorry to go against the shopkeeper, but they must speak the truth. They certainly saw a crown-piece among the lady’s money, and the shopkeeper put it into the till. He examines the drawer, and is surprised to find that the ladies are right; he begs pardon, and the fraud is completed. The purchasing thief waited until she saw a five-shilling piece put into the till from the payments of another customer; the other ladies saw that five-shilling piece, and this is the explanation of the trick. There is a variation for this trick; they do not always wait until they are asked for payment, but if they have seen a sovereign go into the till, they wait a considerable time, then put a bold face upon it, and ask for the change.

There is another method of cheating shopkeepers in changing money, which is called “palming, or twining or twisting.” This game is carried on to a great extent, and shopkeepers cannot well detect it. A thief once said to me, “When I have been palming, I have often heard the shopkeeper say: ‘You have done something, I am certain, though I can’t tell what it is. ” This is when the palmer has had a tumble, i.e., when, by want of quickness, dexterity, or coolness, he has roused the shopkeeper’s suspicions. “Palming” or “twisting” is worked by two men. One swags all that the palmer purchases, and stays outside to render the “twister” any assistance he may need. Sometimes the swagsman goes into the shop and helps to confuse the shopkeeper by distracting his attention. The palmer begins by making a purchase of some kind. Perhaps he will offer a five-pound note in payment, but a sovereign is the usual thing. If the shopman cannot give him change, or will not because he suspects something, the palmer at once “works to-rights” by saying: “Well, I have no change, but please to wrap the parcel up, and I will call for it presently.” He thus escapes unhurt, and certainly will not call again. Should the shopkeeper have change, and be unsuspiciously willing to part with it, the palmer’s malversation proceeds. If the shopkeeper opens the money-drawer to count the change out and leaves the drawer open, or if he puts a handful of silver on the counter from which to select the change, he is almost certain to be defrauded. The palmer will not let the shopkeeper put the change on the counter if he can help it, but holding out his hand the shopkeeper counts the money into the thief’s palm. Just as the shopkeeper drops the last coin into the palmer’s hand, the thief says, “Oh, I will not deprive you of all this change; now I remember, I have enough small change in my pocket to pay for it.” Then the thief throws the change back into the till or among the money on the counter. But he holds as much of the change as he can between his thumb and the palm of his hand, and this is hidden from the eye of the shopkeeper, because when the thief is in the act of throwing back the change he holds his hand with the palm undermost. The palmed money is