| The number of felonies of goods, &c., exposed to sale in the Metropolitan districts for 1860 | 1671 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 133 |
| 1804 |
| Value of goods thereby stolen in the Metropolitan districts | £1487 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 35 |
| £1522 |
Stealing from Children.—Children are occasionally sent out by their mothers, with bundles of washing to convey to different persons, or they may be employed to bring clothes from the mangle. They are sometimes met by a man, at other times by a woman, who entices them to go to a shop for a halfpenny or a penny worth of sweets, meanwhile taking care they leave their parcels or bundle, which they promise to keep for them till they return. On their coming out of the shop, they find the party has decamped, and seldom any clue can be got of them, as they may belong to distant localities of the metropolis.
In other cases they go up to the children, when they are proceeding on their way, with a bundle or basket, and say: “You are going to take these things home. Do you know where you are going to take them?” The child being taken off her guard may say. She is carrying them to Mrs. So-and-so, of such a street. They will then say. “You are a good girl, and are quite right. Mrs. So-and-so sent me for them, as she is in a hurry and is going out.” The child probably gives her the basket or bundle, when the thief absconds. A case of this kind occurred in the district of Marylebone about six months ago.
A girl was going with two silk-dresses to a lady in Devonshire-street, when she was met by a young woman, who said she was a servant of the lady, and was sent to get the dresses done or undone, and was very glad she had met her. The woman was an entire stranger to the lady. The larceny was detected on the Saturday night, and the lady was put to great inconvenience, as she had not a dress to go out with on the Sunday. Robberies of clothes sent out to be mangled, and of articles of linen are very common. Milliners often send young girls errands who are not old enough to see through the tricks of these parties prowling about the metropolis.
These larcenies are generally committed by vagrants decently dressed, and too lazy to work, who go sneaking about the streets and live in low neighbourhoods, such as St. Giles’s, Drury-lane, Short’s-gardens, Queen-street, and the Borough. They are in most cases committed in the evening, though sometimes during the day.
Child Stripping.—This is generally done by females, old debauched drunken hags who watch their opportunity to accost children passing in the streets, tidily dressed with good boots and clothes. They entice them away to a low or quiet neighbourhood for the purpose, as they say, of buying them sweets, or with some other pretext. When they get into a convenient place, they give them a halfpenny or some sweets, and take off the articles of dress, and tell them to remain till they return, when they go away with the booty.
This is done most frequently in mews in the West-end, and at Clerkenwell, Westminster, the Borough, and other similar localities. These heartless debased women sometimes commit these felonies in the disreputable neighbourhoods where they live, but more frequently in distant places, where they are not known and cannot be easily traced. This mode of felony is not so prevalent in the metropolis as formerly. In most cases, it is done at dusk in the winter evenings, from 7 to 10 o’clock.
| Number of larcenies from children in the Metropolitan districts for 1860 | 87 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 10 |
| 97 |
| Value of property thereby stolen in the Metropolitan districts | £65 | 0 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 5 | 10 |
| £70 | 10 |