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PHOTOGRAPH BY PILOT FILMB CORPORATION, NEW YORK

THE CARELESS TRUCKMAN MAY EXPECT TO LOSE HIS GOODS
The thief watches his opportunity to drive off with the truck while the truckman is delivering part of his load.

people and the supply people and arranges with them for a "rake-off." When the bills come in, the owner grins and bears it. He is willing to be "done." It's a mark of his standing in the eyes of his chauffeur as a man and a sport. But after he has had one or two machines he learns to audit bills carefully and so changes drivers frequently, for these gentlemen will not stay with men who are "mean" about expenses.

So easy has this game become that if a chauffeur were a good sport he wouldn't take the graft!

The chauffeur himself by his criminal negligence becomes a promoter of crime in others. He does things with the machine that no old-fashioned coachman would have dreamed of doing with his employer's rig. Joy-riding was carried to such an outrageous extent that partial reforms were brought about. Many garage managers were warned not to let the cars go out without orders from the owners. This restricted the chauffeur's opportunities somewhat. Obviously he could not use the machine while his owner was making a call, for he didn't know at what moment he might return. But the definite hours of the theater and opera gave him a chance. From the rising to the falling of the curtain is "his" time. He picks up girls or meets some that he knows and whisks away up Jerome Avenue or somewhere else where numerous cafés and combination dance halls or cabarets obtain. He leaves the machine outside at the mercy of whoever happens by. These cars are strung along for blocks, unguarded for a couple of hours at least. And the sneak thief, knowing the negligence of the grafting chauffeur, proceeds himself to prey upon the thief "higher up." A pair of nippers and a screw-driver are all the tools he needs. He may clip off tires worth anywhere from $50 to $150, or unscrew and appropriate a $125 magneto or a $100 speedometer with perfect ease and safety, and carry them off to his own waiting car and then to the fences, where he disposes of them for fully sixty per cent of their face value.

There are about forty companies in New York who write insurance on automobiles, and they lose an average of eight machines a year each. The insurance policy covers theft of nachine, fire, transportation, and pilferage of tires, tools, and other accessories, in amounts of over $25, and where the theft has been done by others than those employed by the The moral risk is everything in insur

Owner.

ing a machine. A company would insure an auto owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt or John Claflin right up to the face value, where they would insure it for only half its value for some restaurant-keeper, bartender, or other person of uncertain responsibility.

The majority of cars are stolen in the daytime in front of the big cafés in crowded districts. There is nothing easier for a man dressed as a chauffeur than to step into an unguarded machine and pull out. But it takes a mechanician familiar with the makes of all machines to do this with anything like the necessary assurance. On the other hand, accessories that are stolen are taken from the cars at night. The reasons for this are obvious: any one clipping a chain from an extra tire or unscrewing a magneto would be instantly caught.

The man who steals the car drives to a regular fence," where they at once proceed to change its appearance. The body, its most distinguishing feature, if a limousine, is exchanged for a touring, or vice versa, for the chassis will take any kind of a top. Then the factory number, stamped in the bed of the engine, is chiseled out and all other marks of identification removed.

So negligent are we that we do not take the trouble to inform ourselves as to the proper fares a taxi driver should charge, and even when we know he is robbing us we are too cowardly or too indifferent to protest, or we haven't the time or are too lazy to have him take us to the police station to settle the matter. Of course he knows this and banks on it. And yet we complain of crooks being in the business of driving taxis!

Most amazing negligence is commonly shown by the truckman who hauls bale goods. He pulls up at the curb with a $10,000 load of silks, and, picking up a package worth $50 or $100, goes up to some loft to make a delivery, leaving the balance of his valuable cargo to take care of itself. It is no coincidence that the thief is on the spot when the driver leaves his truck unprotected. This crook who specializes in silk and other bale goods was near the warerooms when the goods were loaded onto the truck and has followed them like a sleuth until the opportunity He is dressed like an ordinary truckHe watches the driver mount the stairs until he is out of sight, then he calmly comes out of the building, casts away his cigarette, mounts the truck in the most nonchalant manner in the world, and drives away

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either to the fence or to meet his pal who may be lurking in some by-street with an auto.

Understand, a very large majority of the great wholesale houses do not own their own horses and wagons, but contract their carrying business out to truckmen. Where such business is heavy enough, the truckman prints the merchant's name on a certain number of his vehicles, which is a good advertisement.

It used to be that these trucking contractors could insure not only their rigs against theft, but the goods they were handling as well. The insurance companies at the same time would insure the merchant against loss and thus collect a double premium. To get even with the company whose rates were pretty high the truckman hired a cheap class of drivers, many of whom were themselves thieves or stood in with the "specialists." This practice resulted in so many losses of goods from trucks that the companies refused to insure contracting truckmen against the loss of goods carried by them, but continued to insure the merchant against the loss of such goods. When a loss was sustained, the insurance company paid the merchant and then fell back on the truckman, who was responsible for the goods as a common carrier. This action on the part of the insurance companies naturally made the contractor less negligent in the matter of men he engaged as drivers. But even so, the theft of rigs through the neglect of truckmen continued and grew to such an extent, and so many losses were sustained by the insurance companies, that they advanced the rates in a short time from 2% to 7 per cent, practically a prohibitive figure. One great trucking concern in New York has 700 rigs. It is fair to assume that an average value is $700. Of course single rigs may be much less, but double rigs with splendid horses are worth much more than twice $700. Obviously, then, it would cost this company 7 per cent on $490,000, or $34,300 a year, to insure its equipment. Small owners, however, such as grocers, laundrymen, and the like, having only one or two rigs, continue to insure, even at this high rate.

No doubt being covered by insurance promotes negligence and more. For instance, some years ago dealers in silks and linens and other valuable fabrics used to occupy ground floor spaces on Greene Street or Mercer Street-a regular colony of them. Now they have moved to the sky-scraping

structures on Fourth Avenue; instead of being on the ground floor, they may be on the tenth or fifteenth. This fact has opened up possibilities to the ingenious crook. The merchant's door opens and in comes a man wearing a regular expressman's cap. "Anything for Adams or the American ?" he asks.

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They deliver three bales of silk to him. He takes it away, and that's the last they hear of it. The clerk has neglected to look out of the window to see whether an Adams" or an "American" wagon is at the curb. Probably from that height he couldn't tell anyway, and he certainly won't go all the way down stairs to investigate. Besides, they are insured!—that's why he won't take the trouble. The crook knows this, and banks on it.

But insurance doesn't always protect. A house that had lost goods to a fake expressman called up the insurance company and wanted to know what they were going to do about it. The secretary of the company investigated and then told the manager of the house that as they had not delivered the goods to a common carrier, as per agreement, the insurance company could do nothing for them. Of course they had no recourse against the express company, since these were not responsible for the crooks who masqueraded as their employees.

The other day a friend of mine negotiated for the renting of a furnished house.

Said the lady of the house, who knew my friend well," We leave everything as you see it-linen, silverware, and all."

"But," protested my friend, who knew the silverware to be very valuable, “I don't care to take the responsibility of this silver. You can take it away."

"Don't worry," said the lady.

My friend looked at her in astonishment, and she explained. "We used to worry about it. We used to take it upstairs every night and lock it up in the safe; but we don't any more. We just leave it right here. You see, we've had it insured against burglary!"

Another curious result of insurance is this: The companies have taken to offering a reward of $300 for the recovery of stolen automobiles insured by them, and there is no doubt that many machines are stolen for no other purpose than to obtain this.

Diamonds are the goal of the most ambitious crooks. These bring the greatest price, are the most portable, and can be disposed of at nearer to their real value than any other class of goods. It is constantly a

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PHOTOGRAPH BY PILOT FILMS CORPORATION, NEW YORK THE CARELESS SHOPPER TEMPTS CHILDREN TO CRIME "The habit among women of carrying money loosely is to blame for more theft than almost any other agent"

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game of wits between the jeweler and the crook. The one knows that the other is after the diamonds, and he tries to safeguard against that gentleman's machinations. the crook knows that there is a very great profit in jewelry, that one sale may net the merchant enough to pay his expenses for a long period and he banks on this for a certain margin of risk that the dealer will take.

Four men drift casually into a jeweler's store on upper Third Avenue. The one to enter first engages the attention of the watchmaker in the window, dickering over the repairs to a cheap watch, another engages the shopkeeper's wife in a transaction over bric-à-brac at the other end of the store, while the third, a very distinguished-looking man, presently strolls in and asks to see

some unmounted diamonds. This game is as old as the hills, yet the jeweler falls for it right along. Sometimes, to inspire confidence, the distinguished stranger is accompanied by a man, bare-headed and in his shirt-sleeves. The bare-headed man says to the merchant, "You know me-my shop's four doors above." The jeweler doesn't know him, but the ruse works. The tray of diamonds is brought out and the distinguished stranger picks up one of the beauties, and even though the merchant's eyes never leave his hands, so great is his art as a prestidigitator that he either substitutes a paste diamond or a genuine stone of inferior quality or smaller weight. The latter is generally the case, since paste is easily detected by an expert, and could not be successfully substituted except under the most favorable conditions. This process is called penny

weighting."

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The companies who insure jewelers constantly warn them never to take their eyes from a jewel in the hands of a customer, and never to turn away from the tray on the counter unless they have a mirror behind them in which they can watch it. The jeweler is particularly warned against putting a tray of rings on the counter unless all the rows are filled, since it is difficult to note a missing ring from broken rows.

Notwithstanding his experience and his warning, the jeweler will take a risk for the sake of the money there is in it. But his most unreasonable negligence is where he leaves his store unlighted at night, or locates his safe behind a partition, or puts his wallet of diamonds in his inside coat pocket and then, followed by the sneak," boards a car, does the strap-hanging act, and leaves his valuables unguarded.

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Jewelers take great chances in displaying immensely valuable stocks in windows with just the thickness of a glass between the precious stones and the thief. In fact, from

the 15th of September last to the 5th of January the great holiday gift season—a regular epidemic of window smashing occurred in Chicago. The crooks would simply steal a car, one of them being an expert driver; then, when the police were out of the way, would dash up to a window, smash it, grab the loot, make a getaway, and then abandon the car.

Jewelers have sustained heavy losses through the negligence of drummers. For instance, on one occasion such a one sent his

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trunk worth $20,000 away on the wagon of an expressman whom he did not know--and never saw it again. Later it turned out that the expressman specialized" in jewelry. A drummer's trunk may be worth from $30,000 to $50,000. It's worth taking pains to get. The specialist will follow it from town to town, seeking for a chance to "switch" checks in the baggage-room or "sneak" it in a hotel. Not long ago a jewelry drummer left a grip with $7,000 worth of jewelry in it with the head porter of a hotel, while he went with another grip to meet buyers. When he came back it was gone.

And so the drummer has been warned by the insurance companies never to leave a trunk in a baggage-room over night; always to see to it that it goes on the same train with its owner; never to put a grip on the floor in a jewelry store while he is displaying valuables from another on the counter or elsewhere. Above all things, he is warned against talking-talking shop to any one but the men with whom he is sent to do business. Talking is a fatal propensity in any case. It leads to much crime. Here's an example:

A little shoemaker from Naples had located on the East Side of New York. Here he had worked and saved from day to day until he had accumulated a thousand dollars. With this he intended going back to Italy, buying a little hillside farm, and being happy the rest of his life. But his great happiness made the little shoemaker garrulous. He told his plans to his assistant, a Sicilian. The assistant went to his boon companions, told them of the shoemaker's savings, and the little Neapolitan received a demand for the $1,000 under pain of death. The gang got the money, and the cobbler continues to work and save with the hillside farm ten years further away.

An officer of a fidelity company told me the other day that he estimated that sixty per cent of the defalcations by cashiers. clerks, and others in positions of trust are due to the negligent methods of those who employ them. The bank that doesn't require frequent accountings from its clerks issues an invitation to "help yourself," and is quite as guilty as the thief.

The negligent business house allows a clerk to sign checks, or it doesn't insist upon frequent balancing of the books, or it allows the same man both to send out bills and receive payment, or there is an absence of audits

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