The mode of stealing by gipsies is somewhat similar. They pitch their tents on some waste ground by the roadside, or on the skirt of a wood, and frequently steal a horse when they get an opportunity. One will take it away who has been keeping unobserved within the tent, and the rest will remain encamped in the locality as if nothing had happened. They may remove it to a considerable distance, and get it into the covert of a wood, such as Epping Forest, or some secluded spot, and take the first opportunity to sell it.
Another class of persons travel about the country, dealing in small wares as Cheap Johns, who occasionally steal horses, or give information to abandoned characters who steal them.
These robberies of horses are generally committed in rural districts, and are seldom done in the metropolis, as horses are in general looked after, or locked up in stables. They are occasionally stolen in the markets in and around the metropolis, such as Smithfield and the new market at Islington.
Sometimes horses in carts, and cabs, and other vehicles are removed by thieves in the streets of the metropolis; but this is only done for a short time until they have rifled the goods. So soon as they have secured them, they leave the horse and vehicle, which come into the hands of the police, and are restored to the owner.
The horses stolen are generally light and nimble, such as those used in phaetons and light conveyances, and not for heavy carts or drays.
These robberies are detected in various ways. For example, sometimes a valuable horse is offered for sale at a reduced price in some market, which excites suspicion. At other times the appearance of the person selling the horse is not consistent with the possession of such an animal. On some occasions these robberies are detected by the police from descriptions forwarded from station to station, and are stopped on the highway.
Horse-stealers generally take the horses through backroads, and never pass through tollbars, if they can avoid it, as they could be traced. The keeper of the toll might give information to the police, and give a clue to the way they had gone.
London thieves have been known to go considerable distances into the country to steal horses—after having learned that horses could easily be taken away. These robberies are generally committed in the spring and summer, when horses are turned out to grass.
| Number of cases of horse-stealing in the metropolitan districts for 1860 | 23 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 0 |
| 23 |
| Value of property thereby abstracted in the metropolitan districts | £649 |