A class of people are frequently on the look-out for these carts to plunder them of their linen. The carts are under the management of a man or a woman. The thieves follow the vehicle to a quiet street, one puts his shoulder under a basket while the other cuts the cord which attaches it to the cart, when both make off with the stolen property.
These thieves reside over London in low districts, such as St. Giles’s and Shoreditch, and are occasionally brought before the police courts.
There is a class of robberies from gentlemen’s carriages about the West-end of the metropolis. In going to the Opera, West-end theatres, or other fashionable places of amusement, the gentleman frequently leaves his valuable overcoat or cloak in the carriage. These thieves follow the conveyance to some quiet street leading to the stables where the vehicle is to remain till the gentleman returns from his evening’s amusement. They let down the window of the carriage and carry off any article which is left. The theft is nimbly committed while the vehicle is on its way to the stables, or when it is returning to the Opera, and is done chiefly by young men, experienced thieves. They live in the low neighbourhoods already referred to.
There is a good deal of this mode of thieving carried on in the West-end of London during the winter season.
| Number of larcenies from carts and other vehicles in the Metropolitan district for 1860 | 286 |
| Ditto, ditto, in the City | 79 |
| 365 |
| Value of property thereby stolen in the Metropolis | £1075 |
| Ditto, ditto, in the City | 370 |
| £1445 |
Stealing Lead from House-tops, Copper from Kitchens, and Workmen’s Tools, &c. in Dwelling-houses.—Of late this mode of thieving has been extensively carried on over the metropolis, chiefly at unoccupied houses. In some cases, a key is obtained by the thief, respectable in appearance, from the gentleman who lets the house, without his accompanying him to the empty dwelling, when he takes the opportunity of stealing the copper boiler from the washing-house, and the lead pipe from the butt or cistern. He passes the stolen property to some of his associates, and returns the key of the dwelling.
This is a peculiar class who make a livelihood by going round empty houses in different districts on similar errands. They do not give their name and address, are strangers in the neighbourhood, and cannot be easily tracked out by the police.
Lead is frequently stolen from the housetops, by the loafing ruffians, we have before described, who lounge about public-houses, robbing drunken men, and occasionally by boys. Sometimes these robberies are committed by plumbers’ workmen and others engaged in repairing the houses.
Lead in most cases is stolen from those dwellings which are under repair, or have been unoccupied for some time. When a house is repaired, it frequently happens the roofs of the adjoining occupied houses are stripped and carried off by unprincipled workmen.