Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 275, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1912 — Trap for “Dips” Is One of the Latest Inventions [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trap for “Dips” Is One of the Latest Inventions

CHICAGO. —Members of the "Pickpockets’ Protective association” had better beware of Samuel Franklin, 1347 Throop street Sam is after you. He has invented a trap for "dips” that promises to snare more than one in the meshes of the law. Sam has learned from bitter experience and he is out for revenge. Sam was robbed of a purse containling sl6 while riding on a north-bound Halsted street car. The other day the police of the Desplaines street station took Harry Robinson and J. Harris in custody on suspicion that they were pickpockets. As one of them answered the description of the man who victimized Franklin, Sam was called In to identify him. He identified Robinson, but could not connect Harris with the theft “I don’t think I shall ever be robbed again,” said Sam casually as he started from the station. "Why?” asked several policemen at •the same time, startled by the young man’s apparent self-assurance. Sam’s answer was to turn his back end remove his coat There the astonished bluecoats beheld a thick string 'looped about the 65hn’s shoulders iand running down into his trouser’s ihip pockets on either side. Sam

pulled on the right string and out from the depths of his pocket came the fattest purse the cops ever had seen. Robinson’s eyes bulged hungrily. The purse was tightly tied to the string. “You see, I put paper in this purse and keep my money in another,” explained Sam Jauntily. “When a dip grabs my purse he pulls on the string and I know he’s nibbling.” “Yes, but how are you to prevent him from jerking it loose and making a run for it?” asked the detective. "Why, you see, when he pulls on this string,” explained Sam suiting his actions to his words, "it pulls the string out of the other pocket. I have a club in the other pocket, which has no bottom. The thief in pulling out the* purse automatically pulls out the club and I bang him over the bean with it.”