Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1889 — SENDING A DECOY LETTER. [ARTICLE]

SENDING A DECOY LETTER.

How the Government Entraps Dishonest Mail Clerks or Carriers. “You want to know how we ‘get on’ to clerks or mail-carriers who steal money from letters, you say,” remarked a postoffice inspector. “The method is simple enough, and yet we catch them every time. Of course there are a good many schemes we can work on them, but the least complicated is th< decoy letter. “When we think a man is opening letters, we prepare a letter and gLveit—a semi-fictitious address —to the wrong street, the wrong number or something of that sort. We put in a dollar or so, and make it just bulky enough so that it will attract the clerk’s attention when he handles it. These clerks get so skillful, you know, that they almost invariably can tell by the sense of touch when a letter contains money. This decoy letter is stamped with some—postmark selected, and is thrown into the clerk’s or carrier’s box. “He gobbles it almost every time. We are on the watch, and if we hear nothing from it we know that it must have been lost in transit This test is used oftener outside the post-office than in it, however, in the interest of business men who suspect their employes audothera. —Boston Globe. - -