Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1892 — SENDING A DECOY LETTER. [ARTICLE]

SENDING A DECOY LETTER.

How the Government Entraps Dishonest Mail Clerks or Carrier*.. •‘You want to know how we *gel on* to clerks or mail-carriers who steal money from letters, you say,” remarked a postoffiee inspector. “The rootl*od is simple enough, and yet we eatetr them every time. Of course there are a good many schemes we cau work oo « them, but the least complicated is thedecoy letter. ‘‘When We think a man is opening*--letters, we prepare a letter and give it a semi-fictitious address —to the wrong .fltrfiew tha wroag. uuinber or. someibijMt. of that sort. We put in a dollar or mx. and make it just bulky enough so that, it will attract the clerk’s attention, when he handles it. These clerks g«t so skillful, you know, that thpy almost invariably can tell by the sense of touch when a letter contains money.. This decoy letter is stamped with soam postmark selected, and is thrown into the clerk's or carrier’s box. “He gobbles it almost every timet We are on the watch, and if we bear nothing from it we know that it mast have been lost in transit. This tent ie used oftener outside the postoffloe than in it, however, in the interest of business men who suspoct their employe* and others.—-Boston Globe.