Male Accomplices Get Busy.
Meantime her male accomplice has put on his shoes. He goes around to the front of the house, opens the front door noisily, and, walking heavily, he knocks loudly at the room door, and calls out, "Mary!" or any name that may suggest itself. The woman will at once exclaim. "Oh, that is my husband! Dress yourself quickly, and be ready to go out as soon as I get him away from the room door."
The victim will hastily put on his clothes, and as soon as the woman slips out and gives him the signal he escapes, only too glad not to be caught. Before he goes, however, and while he is talking to the woman, her pal has opened the panel, put his hand in all the victim's pockets—(his clothes having been put in front of the door), and nearly all his money is taken. A portion is left, so that he may not immediately discover his loss. Jewelry is never disturbed, as it would be missed at once. The favorite methods is to take out the middle of a roll of notes, if in a roll, or if in a pocket book, the bottom notes are removed, so that when the victim examines his purse hurriedly he will not discover that he has been robbed. If the amount stolen is large the house is vacated, and the woman skips the town for a time.
The women who work for these badger houses work in one city for a time, then go to the next large city with a note to the chief who runs the house there. The women generally wear wigs, so in case the man reports his loss to the police he will, perhaps, describe a fair-haired woman, when perhaps her hair is black. A blonde wig is discarded, the case is fixed.
A female badger and her lover may be poor and unable to rent a house. In this event they will rent a furnished room in a furnished-room house. The bolt on the door is fixed by simply taking out the screws from the nose of the bolt, and the screw holes are enlarged. The screws are well greased and then put back, the key taken out of the lock, so when the time comes for the thief in go in, as previously described, he pushes in the door easily and quietly, as the hinges are well oiled, and the victim is robbed while he is making violent love to the supposed "married woman."
The Photographic Catch.
Only a downright fool or egotist can become the victim of this scheme. He deserves to lose whatever he has if he is foolish enough to be taken in. The only way to protect yourselves against the work of these thieves is to mind your own business.
The new panel and blackmail swindle called the "Photographic Catch" is one by which dupes are frightened into paying hush-money, and otherwise putting themselves in the hands of unscrupulous and designing people.
The old panel game has been brought up to date and is being worked vigorously. This new swindle is one of the coolest "bluffs" ever attempted to be worked upon an unsuspecting person.