By permission of the Current Literature Publishing Company, we quote from the May 1915 number of “Current Opinion” an article dealing with the technique of crime according to Inspector Cornelius F. Cahalane, a noted instructor of detectives, appointed to the metropolitan police force of New York:
“Practically every burglary is prearranged and the details planned. Burglars guard against the ordinary precautions which they think a live policeman will take to prevent their crimes or to capture them. Do not imagine that every burglar or thief wears a peak cap, box coat, sweater, striped trousers or bull-nosed shoes, so typical of stage burglars. They realize that to dress in such a manner would arouse immediate suspicion, and, accordingly, dress and carry themselves in a manner least likely to attract attention. They do not, as most persons fancy, carry burglary tools on their persons at all times. They know that it is not only a violation of the law, but that it is circumstantial evidence as well. Hence burglars carry tools no longer than is absolutely necessary. Sometimes they hide their tools near the scene of the contemplated burglary. If they have tools in their possession and think they are going to be searched, they will try to hide them or throw them away. Tools are carried frequently in musical instrument cases.
“There are many different types of burglars, who resort to various means in plying their calling. The burglars most dangerous to society are those known as ‘Dutch house men.’ They are the most desperate. They always work heavily armed and to accomplish their purpose or to avoid capture will take life under the slightest provocation. They usually operate in an inhabited dwelling, and to gain entrance, secrete themselves in some part of the building or grounds until they think the occupants have retired; then, if necessary, they make their way to a roof, fire-escape or porch, and get in by prying open a skylight or jimmying a window sash.
“As a rule, householders fasten windows leading to fire-escapes or porches, but are careless about the other windows. ‘Dutch house men’ know this failing and often take advantage of it. They fasten one end of a rope (which one of them may have carried wound around his body) to a chimney on the roof and drop the other end over the ledge. One of them will lower himself to the desired window, open it and enter. They generally seek the place where it is most likely that valuables have been left before the owner retired, such as the tops of dressers or the pockets of clothing. In going from room to room, they usually place some obstruction, a table or a chair, in such a position that if the occupant should awaken and attempt to leave the room, he would trip over the object and make enough noise to warn the burglar that his presence had become known. Unless they are sure that no alarm has been given, they will seldom leave by way of the street; usually they secrete themselves on the roof or in the back yard and remain until there is an opportunity to escape.
“Flat thieves are not as desperate as the ordinary run of burglars, but they are burglars too, and they manage to steal considerable property. As a rule they will not enter an apartment while anyone is at home. They profit by the knowledge that housekeepers generally hide their money and valuables in a nook where they think a thief will be least likely to look—under rugs, legs of tables, under mattresses and beds, in sewing machine drawers, and the like.
“A flat thief requires only about five minutes in an ordinary flat, and when he is through it looks as though an earthquake had shaken the building. He starts by pushing the furniture to one end of the room. He turns the rugs over, empties the contents of bureau drawers into the middle of the floor, where they are examined, throws mattresses to the floor, cuts them open if he has not already discovered the hiding place, turns vases and bric-a-brac upside down, and, in this way, has every part of the flat searched in a short time. Flat thieves are usually young men between the ages of sixteen and thirty years.
“They gain entrance by ringing the vestibule bells, and, if no response is made, they assume that no one is at home, and enter the hallway and proceed to the apartment selected. If the door is locked they either use a false key or jimmy it open. Or, they may watch persons leaving their apartment, and enter during their short absence. If questioned, they try to represent themselves as peddlers, agents, inspectors of telephones, gas, water or electricity, or mechanics. They usually bundle together the proceeds of a theft and carry it to the street, passing through the halls with an air of bravado, so as not to excite suspicion. They generally work in pairs; one standing in the hallway to warn his partner of the return of the tenant, and, in case the thief is pursued, to trip the person in pursuit or to divert him in some other way. They seldom leave a house together, but usually meet at a distance from the scene to dispose of the property and divide the proceeds.
“Many flat thieves work by hiring a room or rooms in a residential section of the city and as near the roof as possible, particularly where the roofs in the vicinity are of about the same height. They use scuttles and fire-escapes as a means of getting into buildings and convey the plunder over the roofs to their rooms. In this way they avoid the danger of being detected in the street.
“More ambitious than the flat thief, but in something of the same class, is the loft burglar. Loft burglars are the most feared by merchants, for when they make a haul it is usually a big one, amounting to thousands of dollars. They are necessarily the brainiest of burglars for the reason that their work requires more and better planning. Plans are often made weeks in advance.
“A loft is selected after a study of the location and the quantity and quality of the stock carried in it. Weeks are then spent in becoming familiar with the habits of persons who might be in a position to thwart or discover them, particularly the watchmen and patrolmen on post, and the customary time of opening and closing the building, noting the person to whom this duty is entrusted.