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Show Retail Magazine Warns On Shoplifting Menace ivice has fooled countless storey owners. j Sometimes shoplifters have small children carrying these false : packages. They take the package ! from the child once or twice as they pretend to fix the child's hair or clothes. In the same motion they use to put the package under un-der their arm they also deposit some item they have picked up. When they get what they want they send the child outside with the package with instructions to wait in their car for mamma. The child is above suspicion, and so is the package, so you can see what a handy gadget this is. Some shoplifters borrow a baby for their work. The blanket around the baby sreves as a nice hideaway for stolen articles, and the baby serves as a very disarming disarm-ing tool. . Shoplifters also are in the habit of visiting stores when a skeleton staff is on hand immediately after the store opens and near closing time, so it would be advisable for stationers to be doubly alert at these times. Now that you know some shoplifters' shop-lifters' tricks you have an even chance against this light-fingered gentry. And if you catch one of these none-too - rare individuals call up the newspapers and make sure you publicize the fact. When other shoplifters read that one of their kind was nabbed in your store they'll avoid your establish ment as though it were poison and what could be nicer than that? . Shoplifters will nlways bt a nu'iuu'O to retailors in ovory fiold. mationory stores throughout the country ure no exception. There are no figures available as to the value of the merchandise that is stolen from stationery stores each year, but the loss (is a substantial om to be sure. While we can't ' keep the shoplifter shop-lifter out of stores at the present time, we can at least look over his bag of tricks. The shoplifter always goes where the pickings are the easiest. When he sees other shoplifters take a tumble in a certain store, he or she steers clear of that particular par-ticular place in the future. The best way to discourage the shoplifter shop-lifter is to study his methods and be ready when he steps into your sture. Naturally, shoplifters always go for the most expensive items, but they will settle for the cheapest article if need be. Some of the amateurs steal because be-cause they want something for nothing; some steal articles they cannot afford to buy; and others steal for the thrill they get in matching their wits the retailer. But steal they do, until they burn their fingers. The professional doesn't take nearly as many chances as the S , amateur. The majority of profes-Jsional profes-Jsional shoplifters are women. jMnny work with crooked fences I who handle their stolen merchan-jdise merchan-jdise for them, and a shyster law-j law-j yor is always on hand to get them out of jail when things go wrong. They usually work with one or more confederates. The shoplifter shop-lifter often passes the stolen mer chandise on to a confederate who takes it out of the store. Sometimes shoplifter will purchase pur-chase an article, get a sales slip for it, slip it to the confederate who leaves the . store while the shoplifter goes about her business of stealing that same article. She usually gets the benefit of the doubt if the owner thinks he saw her steal the duplicate of the article arti-cle she purchased. After all, she did buy such an article, and she has her sales slip to prove it. Some of the gadgets that are used by this group are: sleeve holdouts, dummy arms, boxes with no. bottoms, packages that, look like they are. securely tied but which have movable tops or bottoms bot-toms held together from the inside by strong rubber bands. Stolen items are also dropped into the folds of umbrellas, which make a convenient hiding place, and sometimes some-times these same umbrellas have a ' wad of chewing gum on the lower pafter, and the item is picked up when he or she nonchalantly picks up the supposedly filled package. .The packages with the movable top or bottom are quickly stuffed with merchandise, and since the movable part quickly is pulled back into place, this deceptive de- I tip, which enables shoplifters to j get at small valuable merchandise , which would otherwise be out of their reach. Elastic garters with a few hboks attached on which light articles can quickly Jpe placed will soon be in wide use again how that long skirts are in style. Articles hidden hid-den in this manner would only be found if the shoplifter was arrested ar-rested and searched by a police matron. The sleeve holdout is used to steal fountain pens. The pen is quickly attached to one end of the holdout, which is palmed. When released re-leased the hold out is pulled back into 'the sleeve, where the stolen pen is completely out of view. A dummy arm occasionally hangs from one of the sleeves of a shoplifter's coat, while the real arm is hidden beneath a roomy woman's coat or a man's topcoat. The gloved dummy arm is always placed on a counter in full view of the dealer. It is but the work of a moment for the shoplifter to quickly reach out, snatch a handful of merchandise merchan-dise and pull it from view behind the buttoned coat. Even if you got' suspicious of anything - you would quickly be disarmed when the positions of the arms would be noted, as well as the buttoned coat. When packages with no bottoms bot-toms are used bhey are placed over the. item that the shoplifter is |