HOLIDAY CROOKS.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 665, 18 October 1933, Page 3

HOLIDAY CROOKS.

ACTIVE IN ENGLAND ' AYOID WELL-DRESSED MEN VFITH MONEY-MAKING SCHEMES. "FASHIONS IN CRIME." — 1 Beware of the holiday crook! When J you leave your homa for the seaside j ' or the country, do not be obsessed j with the idea that a criminal is close ; on your heels. At the same time it is , w'ise not to bs so carefree in your i glorious freedom as to throw all caution to the winds. | The rank ancf file of the criminal 1 classes are steeped in stereotoypcd msthods, but there are many who study their "profession" so intently ; that they become automatically the ■ leaders in every new field of lawhreaking, writes Hugh Brady in the Daily Mail. They create fashions in crime. The wondcrful weather of this summer has put fresh heart into the criminal who is anxious to make hay , while the sun shines. The more people roam abroad, the more the crook feels certain that the dark days of winter will find him enjoying a comfortable leisure in his favourite haunt. I Scotland Yard and the provincial forces have gained — at least temporarily — an advantage in the warfare ' w.ith the marauder, and it is because the mobility of the law has hampered the "smash and grab" igangs that criminals are tending to concentrata on the goods of the holiday-maker. There 'are many phases in the new "epidemic." The first steps in a rob- ' bery carried out on the south and east coast may have been taken when a family was leaving a house in London or Manchester or the suburban home : of a city magnate. • One of the first casfs reported was t the rnatching of a bag of jewel.ery from a limousine sianuing outside a West End home. The chauffeur and the butler were climhiiig the steps for .more luggage when a sports car shot ^longside the limousine, a hand shot out from the vehicle and seizid the

case, and the thief disappeared. Thousands of pounds' worth. of pror perty has found new owners, and in ■ many cases the losers are. soldy to blame. Bags with' valuables should be carefully guarded and not treated haphazardly. ' At the holiday resorts the confidence tricksters seek fresh victims. These men are the hierarchy of the crimlinal profession, and it is said of .some of them that they could "coax birds off trees." Strangers with propositions to increase wealth should. be carefully avoided, even when thay are perfeetly dressed, speak well, and have excellent manners. These asquirements are all part of the swell crook's outfit. Without them he might be a petty burglar. A f ortune in the hands of ' one of these men is only a means to break fresh' ground. Last year a Liverpool priest lost £10,000 to a trickster whom •he had met several years previously. Occasionally the man turned up and always behaved like the gentleman he claimed to be, but when the blow fell it was learned that the thief was a master of his mean craft. This type is a 'deal cleverer than the man wh'o drops an article in the street and then tells the old story — .'it never varies — of having £400,000 left to him by an uncle abroad. These men are satisfied with hundreds— the real expert only stoops to thousands. He is known on the Seven Seas and in the great cities of the world, and it is only his victims who know him for what he is — the greatest menace of the travelling rich. A little care will protect any holi'r day-maker. ' The hip pocktt is a had 'place to carry your wallet, and so is 'your inside breast pocket. The skilled pickpocket can brush against you in a crowd, on an omnibus, or in a queue, and if you lose your wallet you will not know that a confederate "felt you over" a moment before, and told the' thief where to find the wallet. Thieves have a jargon of thcir own, unintelligible to the lawful citizen, who is not to know that a whisper of, say, "Dummy in the bottle," means that the wallet is in the victim's inside breast pocket. Plickpockets invariabiy have long fingers, developed to suit their profession, but their art is unavailing when money is carried in the fob pocket or a pocket in the lining of the waJistcoat.