CLEVER THIEVES

Foreigners visit Paris, thieves visit their pockets

If Parisians, when summer comes, go to seek fresh air in the mountains or at the sea, foreigners and provincials, on the other hand, take advantage of the summer vacation period to visit the capital.

Like schoolchildren on vacation, they leave carefree or naive, unaware of the tricks of the underworld, so thieves of all stripes have a field day. This is the blessed season for pickpockets, or swashbucklers.

The places where the crowd is the densest are those which most often serve as operating fields for pickpockets, and especially the metro.

The judicial police, alerted to an upsurge in thefts of this kind, have exercised very special surveillance for several days and made a certain number of arrests. But thieves are legion and it's good to defend yourself.

Beware of pickpockets !

To this end, we were told this morning, by one of the police inspectors, responsible for their surveillance, some of the tricks with which pickpockets relieve their neighbor of his wallets, bags and jewelry.

Hold your bags in your hand

Let the ladies take care of their bags and hold them in their hands and not by the cords or the chains, two little strokes of the nail clippers, and the chains remain hanging; the bag, which contains money, valuables and jewels, falls delicately into the hand of the skilful trickster. It is thanks to the same pliers that they cut necklaces and seize watch chains.

The wallet shot

_— First, our interlocutor told us, button your jackets, and even the inside pocket of these, if it contains a wallet. A half-open garment is, for the pickpocket, a godsend. While an accomplice - because they often operate in pairs - diverts the attention of the traveler, the pickpocket. whose fingers are wonderfully exercised, lifts slightly and with very gentle jerks, from the outside of the garment, the bottom of the wallet, until its upper part is flush with the edge of the interior pocket of the half-open garment. Then, capturing his victim's gaze for a moment, with two alert and light fingers, he seizes the wallet with such dexterity that we do not notice it until too late.

That of the tie pin

Do you have a prize pin on your tie? Quickly equip it with a toe protector. In addition to avoiding unpleasant bites, it will save the jewel. Always, in the Metro, a well-dressed gentleman, looking like an honest man, stands in front of you, very absorbed in reading an unfolded newspaper. Now is the time to be wary. Taking advantage of the ordinary crush that reigns in the cars, the reader sticks to you. Soon, the edge of his newspaper is rising against your chest. Without you paying more attention to it, the newspaper fits under your pin and lifts it according to the bumps and jolts of the course. The pin, slipping from your tie, remains attached to the edge of the newspaper which suddenly folds up: the shot is done, you haven't seen a thing.

The Pocket Cutters

Have you taken the precaution of buttoning your garment, that you still have to be wary of thieves. Using razor blades, fitted at the end of long sticks, the pickpocket gently cuts your pocket and relieves you of your wallet while sabotaging your clothes. The best thing is to put the valuables that you carry on your person in the revolver pocket of your trousers, this pocket which, pressed against the skin, makes it more difficult for thieves to do their job.

In short, you have to be constantly on your guard. When you take a public car, avoid putting on jewelry, closing your pockets, packing your bag, and above all! open your eyes. The pickpocket immediately sees a person whose mind is alert and he only attacks the distracted.