Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Arsonists
Examining the most underreported of all crimes.
Cause
Origin
Automobile and Other Vehicle Arson
Arson for Hire
Pyromaniacs
Firestarters
Typical Arson Scenarios
Some Final Thoughts on Arson
2 Art, Antique and Jewel Thieves
The ugly business of stealing beautiful things.
Types of Art Theft
The Role of the Fence in Art Theft
Capturing Art and Jewelry Thieves
Criminal Penalties for Art Theft
Conclusion
3 Carjacking, Hijacking, Skyjacking and Auto Theft
The methods and reasons behind modern-day piracy.
Who's the Victim?
Basic Auto Theft
Carjacking
Chop Shops
Vehicles Stolen for Export
Gray Market Vehicles
Heavy Industrial and Construction Equipment
Hijacking
Skyjacking
Vessels and Aircraft
4 Con Artists
The art of swindling.
Salesmen of Fraud
Swindles Against the Elderly
A Glossary for Con Artists
5 Counterfeiters and Forgers
Stealing a free ride on someone else's hard work or ideas.
Currencies
 Credit Card Fraud/Counterfeiting
Other Documentation
Marketable Goods
Forgery
6 Fencing
Converting stolen goods into cash.
Fences and the Law
Types of Fences
How to Become a Professional Fence
Depicting a Professional Fence
7 Homicide
Determining the manner and cause of death.
Medical Examiners
Killing and the M.O.
Passion Killings
Premeditated Domestic Killings
Adjunct Homicide
Serial Killers
Contract Killers
Ritualistic Cults
Stabbing
Death by Gunshot
Things to Remember
Suicide or Homicide
8 Kidnapping
One of the most terrifying and cruel crimes committed against
another human being.
Gang Kidnappings
Ransom Seekers
Cults
Fanatics and Terrorists
Parental Abduction
Stranger Abduction
Apprehending Kidnappers
9 Prostitution
As long as there are people willing to pay for sex, there will be
people willing to sell it.
A Brief History of Prostitution
Causes of Prostitution
Prostitute Categories
Prostitution and the Mob
1 0 Armed Robbery
Using force to get anything you want.
The Professional Armed Robber
Bank Robberies
Armored Car Robberies
The Amateur
Female Armed Robbers
11 Safecracking and lockpicking
Overcoming security obstacles and precautions.
Surveillance
Getting Inside the Property
Getting Inside the Building
Inside the Building
Safecracking
Lockpicking
1 2 Smuggling
Trafficking vice worldwide.
Cocaine
Heroin
Methamphetamine
Designer Drugs
The Old Standbys
Asian Gangs
Jamaican Criminal Groups
The Mob
Black Gangs
Turkish Smugglers
Countries in Conflict
Smuggling People Into the U.S.
1 3 Shoplifters
An increasingly popular crime among "normal" people.
Reasons Why Amateurs Lift
The Professional Shoplifter
Catching the Shoplifter
14 Whitecollar Crime and Money Laundering
Committing crimes with and against businesses.
Telephones and Computers
Money Laundering
Loan Sharking
Introduction
Modus Operandi, or method of operation, is really a term
that refers to the habits, techniques and peculiarities of be-
havior of a criminal. All criminals have a modus operandi,
and enough of them have distinctive methods of operation
to justify the classification of crimes by like characteristics.
The modus operandi of a criminal is his "signature."
Law enforcement agencies maintain modus operandi
files which enable detectives to recognize a pattern of crimi-
nal behavior, to associate a group of crimes with a single
perpetrator, to predict approximately the next target of the
criminal and the next time he will strike, and to assist com-
plainants, eyewitnesses and detectives in recognizing the
perpetrator through recorded characteristics of the criminal
activity. The modus operandi file is most effective in per-
sonal contact crimes such as felonies against the person,
confidence schemes and burglaries.
The traditional method of compiling a modus operandi
file is still considered effective after forty years of use. In
this system the following are considered important elements
in the effectiveness of such a file.
1. Property the type of stolen property provides an ex-
cellent clue in larceny or burglary crimes.
2. Description if the criminal was observed, a verbal de-
scription is usually the most important clue to the iden-
tity of the perpetrator. If the person has been arrested
before, the file will also contain a mug shot.
3. Observation at the Scene the use of all senses at the
scene of a crime is important because it may result in
finding a useful pattern. The objects and substances
seen, heard, smelled, tasted or felt will contribute to
the complete picture.
4. Motive in addition to the taking of property, there
are many other criminal motives. Occasionally, such
as in murder, rape or assault in general, a pattern of
behavior may be seen in a series of crimes. This pattern
 is particularly common in crimes committed by a psy-
chopath.
5. Time the time at which the crimes were committed
is an important element in the pattern. Naturally, since
the exact moment of occurrence cannot be readily es-
tablished in many cases, the detective must try to es-
tablish the time of occurrence within reasonable limits.
6. Peculiaritiesweaknesses of character will ordinarily
reveal themselves in the unaltered surrounds of the
crime. Peculiarities such as drinking a victim's liquor
or eating a victim's food, defecation at the scene or a
particular location, and theft of items that seem unim-
portant, such as ties or cufflinks, are significant.
7. Observed Peculiarities an observer of the offense may
be able to supply valuable clues by noting the crimi-
nal's idiosyncrasies. Speech patterns, a lisp or an ac-
cent are important clues to identity. Also, enunciation,
dialect and diction can be recorded.
Detectives compare the way in which a crime was commit-
ted with records stored in the modus operandi section of
police records. If these comparisons are successful, a detec-
tive obtains data on possible suspects. Detectives also re-
port the modus operandi to other detectives at monthly
meetings to make comparisons. Police agencies use modus
operandi files extensively; they are very successful in solving
burglary, robbery, grand theft, fraud, sex and fraudulent
checks crimes.
The modus operandi file contains so much information
about the method of operations of known criminals that
it often reads like a biography. These files can identify a
perpetrator by naming suspects whose modus operandi in
past crimes fits the facts of the current crimes. Of course,
a suspect's past crimes and operations must be sufficiently
similar to be identified. They must have several features
in common with the crime under investigation to warrant
making a connection between the two.
Similarities in methods of operation, in combination
with other leads, are important tools in identifying crimi-
nals, for they decrease the likelihood of a mistake in sus-
pecting a person of a crime. Storing data on crimes accord-
ing to modus operandi allows police to compare unsolved
crimes with the criminal technique of an apprehended crim-
inal. Connecting these unsolved crimes to an arrested per-
son means the police must continually update their modus
operandi files; otherwise pertinent criminal activity may be
missed.
Here is an example of how modus operandi works:
While working as a detective for the Brooklyn District At-
torney's Office, Joe had investigated a series of home bur-
glaries that occurred in Brooklyn. During the course of
these burglaries, the thief would defecate on the kitchen
table no matter what time of the day or night he struck the
unoccupied home. In some instances, defecation is used as
revenge against a particular person. However, in this partic-
ular thief's M.O., he would always defecate in a particular
location the victim's kitchen table.
A man named Nick was recently released from prison
and had started to burglarize homes in the area. While Nick
was incarcerated, he learned the tricks of his trade even
better. After all, consider jail a kind of college where you
learn your trade better than if you were out in the cold,
cruel world and had to work for a living. Nick learned how
to pop open windows better, how to jimmy the garage door
better, and how to bypass the alarm better. He also learned
how to select his victims, so he would get bigger and better
takes of merchandise in the same amount of time. But one
thing Nick did not learn was a new modus operandi: After
breaking into a home through his usual methods, which
happened to be through a patio door or rear window, and
always starting at the rear of the home, then he would defe-
cate on the victim's kitchen table. He did this for one rea-
son: He was nervous! His criminal activity created such a
turmoil in his body that he actually had to move his bowels.
Now, why did he choose the kitchen table? The real
reason was because he was obsessive-compulsive about
germs he constantly washed his hands and was constantly
concerned about getting sick from germs. While he was in-
carcerated, he was known to take piles of toilet paper, mag-
azines, books, paper towels or whatever he could and place
them on the seat of the toilet so that his bare skin did not
actually touch it. Also, he didn't like to flush the toilet with
his hand on the handle, so he would use a disposable object,
such as a stick. He would not even stoop to flushing the
toilet using his shoe, because that would make germs on the
bottom of his shoe which could possibly spread to his body.
In the early stages of these home burglaries, Joe noted
that Nick would frequently defecate in the person's bath-
room, and the detectives would find the toilet seat layered
with many, many pieces of toilet paper. Coincidentally, Nick
did catch an infection in his genital area. He attributed this
to using the victim's toilet, although it was not a possibility
because of the toilet paper placed on the seat. So from that
point on, he simply defecated on the victim's kitchen table.
When this particular M.O. showed up, Joe simply went
to Nick and casually confronted him. During a casual, ap-
proved search, to which Nick consented, the criminal's
home was found to contain many items that were linked to
the burglaries which had occurred weeks and months earlier
in Brooklyn. This is a classic case of a criminal's method of
operation leading the police to his capture.
In this book, you will learn how and why criminals op-
erate. Their modi operandi, which, until now, were clandes-
tine and known only to themselves and the police depart-
ments investigating them, are now known to you. So, let us
step into the shoes of the criminals who operate day or night
and learn the tricks of their trade. Be forewarned the ex-
perience can be arresting!
Arson is the most underreported of all crimes because evi-
dence that could be left behind is usually destroyed by the
fire. Fire investigators are trained to determine the origin
(where the fire started) and the cause (what started the
fire). If an arsonist performs his craft perfectly, the fire in-
vestigator will find it extremely difficult to determine the
origin and the cause of the fire.
Amateur arsonists attempt to fool the fire investigator
by placing a flammable or combustible material in or near
an electrical outlet. The arsonist thinks that the investigator
will see the burn pattern (the direction that the fire burns,
also known as the V pattern) at the electrical outlet and
determine that the fire started through faulty wiring or elec-
trical devices in the building. However, a trained fire inves-
tigator knows that for an electrical short to start a fire, cer-
tain other elements must be present.
 These elements are a fuel source, an oxygen source,
an ignition source or heat, and an uninhibited chemical re-
action among the three. This is known as the fire triangle.
1. Fuel can be any type of flammable or combustible ma-
terialsolid, liquid or a vapor.
2. An oxygen source is necessary so the fire can
"breathe" and maintain a strong, steady rate of burn.
3. An ignition or heat source could be the striking of a
match by the hands of an arsonist or an electrical mal-
function which causes overheating and/or a spark.
4. The uninhibited chemical reaction is the above three
elements the fire triangle coming together to start
a fire.
The trained fire investigator must evaluate these four ele-
ments in deciding whether or not the cause of the fire is
accidental or arson. By comparing these elements with
other factors, the cause can be properly determined. For
example, in dealing with the electrical short circuit, some
factors, such as the wire beading up, or forming small balls
of melted metal at the point of the short, or sleeving, the
loosening of the insulation from the wire, will indicate arson
or a malfunction. Also, a circuit breaker will "trip" off when
the wire is overloaded. These are the tell-tale signs that an
arson investigator will use to make his determination.
To incorporate arsonists in whodunits, the writer must
first understand the legal definition of arson. A person is
guilty of arson if he or she starts a fire or causes an explosion
whether on his property or another. Arson is covered in the
law by degrees, which accommodate different intents of the
arsonists, such as causing death or bodily injury to a person
or collecting insurance for destruction or damage to the
property.

Cause
There are two types of fire causes. The first is accidental. An
accidental fire is caused either by someone's carelessness or
by equipment malfunction.
 The second fire cause is the incendiary fire. This fire
is started on purpose by an individual with the intent of
destruction. An incendiary fire may have indications of mul-
tiple fire origins, and a flammable or combustible material
used to start the fire may also be found. There may be few,
if any, contents remaining in the building, but valuable or
irreplaceable items, such as photographs, insurance papers
or money, will not be recovered, as the arsonist may steal
such items thinking they will be presumed lost in the fire
rather than stolen.

Origin
Origin and cause are closely related. When considering us-
ing arson and fire investigators as part of your plot, keep
the following rules of fire in mind:
1. The cause of the fire will be found at the point of
origin.
2. The fire will burn longer at the point of origin than at
other places to which the fire has spread.
3. If any flammable or combustible materials were used
to ignite the fire, a sample should be found at the point
of origin.
4. The fire will spread from the point of origin to the rest
of the building (this is known as the direction of fire
travel).
5. Determining the point of origin will either confirm or
refute the stories of the principals involved.
Obviously, there are many ways to start a fire. Here are
some of the most common, along with other attendant ter-
minology.
Dynamite is basically used to blow up an object, but it
could be used in conjunction with another fuel source, such
as gasoline, to create not only a blast but a fireball that
would spread the fire quickly. Sticks of dynamite are short
and fat or long and thin. They are stamped with a product
name (gelatin dynamite), a date-shipped code, and the
manufacturer's name.
Cast boosters are small and stronger than dynamite. When
detonated, cast boosters look like soda cans. These explo-
sives are used to increase or support other explosives, and
they can be used like dynamite to spread the fire faster.
They are stamped with the product name, size, weight, and
a date-shipped code.
An Electronic Detonator or Blasting Cap is an alumi-
num-shelled primer a smaller explosive used to ignite a
larger blasting agent about the size of a small rifle car-
tridge. This aluminum shell has two wires at one end. The
aluminum shell is placed into the explosive, either dynamite
or plastic, to begin a chain reaction once the primer is set
off. The wires exiting the aluminum shell of the primer are
attached to a pair of electrical wires and then to a detonat-
ing device.
Black powder is basically gun powder, similar to what was
used in single-shot muzzle-loading rifles and pistols. It can
be compressed in a container to cause an explosion. These
containers become pipe bombs. Black powder can also be
used to refill inert fragmentation grenades which can be
purchased through military surplus stores.
Cartridge count is the total strength of an explosive com-
posed of the explosive's weight, density and strength.
Detonation occurs in three ways: manual (lighting a fuse),
electric/electronic (sending a current), or mechanical (pull-
ing a pin out of a grenade).
Military explosives are compact, waterproof and olive-
drab, shipped in cardboard containers or coated by a Mylar
film package.
Commercial explosives are more brightly decorated than
military explosives, stamped with a description of use, and
safety warnings.
Primacord (also referred to as detonating cord) is a spool
of multicolored fabric-covered wire. Inside the fabric cover-
ing is a high explosive used to send a detonating wave. If
you wrapped the cord around a tree and detonated it, the
tree would be cut in half where the cord rested. Primacord
is utilized by the military to quickly clear LZs (landing
zones) or to cut through bridge supports.
A delay mechanism can be either an electrical, chemical,
or mechanical time-delay element. This device can be used
alone or in combination with others. It could be as simple
as a burning cigarette resting on a book of matches or a
wristwatch wired so that when the hands come together an
electric circuit is completed.
Incendiary material burns with a very hot flame for a
certain period of time and is used to set fire to other ma-
terial and eventually the structure itself. These materials
need not be sophisticated or scientific; they could be as
simple as a cigarette.

Automobile a n d Other Vehicle Arson

Automobiles seem to be very combustible. As you are quite
aware, they contain flammable liquids, have many electrical
circuits, and their interiors are made of combustible ma-
terial. Combine that with a careless smoker and you have a
vehicle fire, or so you would think. But actually, with new
technology, most interiors are fire resistanta cigarette will
seldom ignite a seat cover or floor mat, the fuel systems are
designed with safety in mind, and the electrical circuits are
shut off by fuses and other interrupt devices.
Accidental vehicle fires do occur, but the fire generally
remains in one compartment, i.e. engine, trunk, glove com-
partment or interior. As with all things, an accidental vehi-
cle fire can also engulf the entire vehicle. Mauro investi-
gated one such occurrence when a teenager, who decided
he could make it home with a flat tire, drove home on the
rim. He did not realize the rim was a magnesium alloy, and
the friction of driving started a fire of unbelievable tempera-
ture, which consumed the vehicle in a short time.
There are two types of vehicle arsonists: amateur and
professional. An amateur is usually behind on his car pay-
merits and desperate to rid himself of the car. He knows
that the vehicle must be declared totaled by his insurance
company, so he will go for mass destruction. The profes-
sional is not necessarily a professional arsonist but a profes-
sional criminal who uses vehicle arson to conceal other
crimes: stolen cars used during the commission of a crime,
or a homicide, for example.
In general, after driving the car to a remote location,
the arsonist will completely dowse the interior and exterior
of the vehicle with a combustible material such as gasoline
or lighter fluid and set the fire. A one- to five-gallon gas
can is generally found at the scene. Using five gallons is
quite dangerous, and the arsonist may end up like the car
because of the flammable vapors that have saturated the
area.
The arsonist might make what are known as trailers by
pouring a stream of gasoline from the vehicle to a location
he feels is far enough away from the vehicle to ignite it
safely. These types of fires are easily tagged as arsons be-
cause of the evidence left behind. Sometimes, the fire will
be started by a road flare, which can easily be thrown from
a safe distance into the vehicle.
Vehicle fires for profit or to mask a crime are not lim-
ited to automobiles. Small trucks, large trucks, buses, vans,
planes and boats all could be set ablaze in the manner de-
scribed above. The bigger, more exotic vehicles, such as air-
planes could be equipped to blow up or ignite while flying.
This is done so that a crash appears to be caused by mechan-
ical problems rather than caused deliberately.
In vehicle fires when the insurance money is impor-
tant, the fire will be started in or near the engine compart-
ment to make it look like an equipment malfunction. If it
is to cover up an additional crime or evidence, the whole
vehicle will be set ablaze with a flammable substance. The
same is true with boats and planes. Often the fire is started
from a trailer.
We can all remember the tragic bombing of the airliner
over Lockerby, Scotland, which killed all passengers. The
incendiary device was placed in a small AM/FM cassette-
radio brought onto the plane through a series of elaborate
cargo shipping procedures. The radio was placed on one
plane in a nonterrorist stronghold where security proce-
dures were weak and did not detect it. Once aboard the
plane, the radio was placed with the other cargo, and
through either altitude or time delay, the explosives were
set off. The small amount of explosives that the radio con-
tained was enough to create a small hole causing the plane
to crash.

Arson for Hire

Arson for hire generally involves structure fires. A person
owns a building, and for financial reasons, decides it's time
to bail out. The owner needs to find an arsonist. He seeks
out someone who he feels may be willing to participate in
the scheme he may approach a trusted employee or con-
tact a network of shady characters. A secret meeting is set
up with the arsonist.
At the meeting, the professional arsonist will ask for
plans of the building, which include sprinkler and alarm
systems, types of locks, and hidden, dimly lit points of entry.
If there are no secluded entry points, a light may be inten-
tionally left off, so no one can see the arsonist enter the
building.
The arsonist usually gives a list of instructions to the
building owner to prepare for the arson. In the weeks or
days before the fire, the owner will set off false alarms,
indicating a problem with the system. This will give him
cause not to set the alarm system the evening of the arson.
Another instruction will be to disable the sprinkler sys-
tem. Sprinkler systems, especially in large buildings, have
emergency shut off valves in case of accidental set offs. Most
of the time, they are located on an exterior wall or on the
lawn adjacent to the building itself. These valves are se-
cured by a chain and padlock. The chain is easily cut with
a bolt cutter and the valves closed. This way the fire will
not be suppressed or slowed by the sprinklers.
Other instructions to the building owner include ma-
lerials the arsonist may need to accelerate the spread of the
fire. For example, placing a number of flammable liquids
used in the manufacturing process of the company in key
locations to spread the fire throughout the building.
Once the arsonist is ready, he will tell the building
owner that now is the time to develop a credible alibi and
may suggest a weekend trip to the Bahamas.
The arsonist usually sets the fire in the early morning
hours for various reasons: less chance of detection because
the factory will be closed and traffic will be light on the
street, the fire will burn longer before it is discovered, and
no workers will be in the building, so loss of lives will be
avoided.
The arsonist may or may not break into the building.
He may use a key to gain entry or a door will be left un-
locked. Once inside, he uses available combustibles along
with a device to ensure ignition after his exit from the scene.
Some arsonists may even set up obstacles or devices
that will deter the suppression of the fire. These devices
could be as simple as chaining fences that the firefighter
has to take time to cut open, or positioning chemicals that,
when touched by the water used in suppression of the fire,
react violently and cause the fire to become hotter and burn
faster.

Pyromaniacs
Pyromaniacs are the most complex type of arsonist. They
often set large destructive fires with no thought of the con-
sequences. It is believed they enjoy a sort of sexual gratifica-
tion from starting fires. Their fires are well thought out,
almost as well as those of the arsonist for hire, but the pyro-
maniac will make all the arrangements for lighting the fire
himself. He will study the layout of the building, determine
how to disconnect sprinkler and alarm systems, and set
traps, not only to slow the firefighters, but to actually hurt
them. He will use devices that will make the fire spread
quickly and violently. His only intent is to destroy. Pyroma-
niacs are the most dangerous arsonists and the hardest to
catch.
Let's walk through a scenario. The arsonist goes to a
warehouse district during the daytime hours to scout some
possible targets. Once he locates a target, he returns that
night to perform additional scouting without detection. He
may even, if the building is unoccupied at the time, break
into the building to determine if there are enough materials
on hand to start and sustain a fire. Once this preplanning
is finished, he will carry out his plans.
He returns during the evening hours and places gallon
plastic milk containers filled with alcohol throughout the
building. He connects these gallon containers with trailers,
usually rags soaked in alcohol. He lights the trailers, which
will carry the flame throughout the building. He exits the
building and may leave altogether or stay in the neighbor-
hood to watch the building burn. Some pyromaniacs only
get a kick out of lighting the fire.

Firestarters
Persons who start fires do so for a number of reasons. These
reasons may be to seek fame, to get even, personal finance,
rage or curiosity. These next few profiles will give the writer
some information as to how and for what reasons people
start fires.
The Here
Security guards and volunteer firefighters are gener-
ally in good positions to start fires. These types of firesetters
are attention-seekers or would-be heroes. For example, a
security guard working the morning tour of duty ignites a
small, controllable fire such as a pile of debris or a trash
can. He "discovers" the fire and gives the alarm to save the
building. He becomes a hero. Or, a volunteer firefighter
sets a controllable, nonlethal fire in a garbage dumpster or
small shed. He does this by using materials located at the
scene and igniting them. Both the security guard and the
firefighter will experiment and eventually branch out to
abandoned buildings, and then to occupied buildings, in an
attempt to become bigger and better heroes, perhaps even
saving someone's life.
These types of fires are usually a spur of the moment
decision. Excessive alcohol consumption has been related
to these firestarters.
A third type of hero firestarters are police-buff arson-
ists. Police-buff arsonists are just like the security guards
and volunteer firefighter arsonists in that they are attempt-
ing to win praise and social recognition and are usually at
the scene giving assistance to the authorities. They will light
fires at a location such as a home for people with special
needs or people who are nonambulatory. They pick these
locations because they will get the most sympathy and atten-
tion for helping fight the fire.
The Lover
Some arsonists act from vanity and jealous rage. Men
tend to set fire to the vehicle or home of a current or former
lover to get even with her. His goal is to create large, danger-
ous fires with the intent of total destruction. He brings flam-
mable and combustible materials to the scene knowing what
will happen after igniting them. The apartment building or
house itself will be set afire from materials on hand with
matches and a lighter. These types of fires are often set late
at night, after a heavy drinking binge or a violent argument.
Women, on the other hand, light very small fires, usu-
ally on the bed using materials on hand such as facial tissues
or the man's clothing. She will make a small combustible
pile and set it on fire using matches or a lighter.
The Juvenile
Juvenile firesetters are complex and bewildering to in-
vestigate. One may light a fire by playing with matches out
of curiosity, or it could be a vengeful or hostile action with
the intent of destroying property and life. Most of the time,
juvenile firestarters plan the fire well and use materials at
the scene and flammable liquids.
Juvenile firestarters are sometimes caught by their
own experimentation. In one case, a boy would sit around
and watch the flame of his small disposable lighter. One
day, the lighter overheated, causing a small explosion. The
boy later died from the injuries he received when the lighter
exploded and ignited his clothing.
As the juvenile firesetter reaches his teen years, he
collects fire tools such as a box of wooden matches and
small bottles filled with flammable liquids to experiment
with fire bombs. He may even make small pipe bombs by
compressing match heads into a pipe. The pipe can be half-
inch diameter copper pipe with the ends folded over. The
pipe is then thrown into a small fire. The firestarter will sit
around to watch it explode. This is very dangerous because
the match heads can explode while they are being packed
into the pipe.
Eventually, either by themselves or in small groups,
they set an abandoned building on fire using combustible
materials such as pieces of furniture, bed coverings or cur-
tains. They pile these materials throughout the building,
light the piles, and exit running. These building are usually
close to their own homes, so they wait at home until the fire
trucks arrive, then return to the scene to watch the fire.
The Others
Other arsonists may act alone or with a close friend.
Like most firestarters, he will work in darkness to prevent
apprehension and to sneak around undetected. He studies
the layout of the building, either through remote surveil-
lance or at the scene. He carries a small amount of flamma-
ble liquid, approaches the house from a side where he can
conceal his actions, splashes or pours the flammable liquid
on an outside wall of the building, and ignites it.
This type of fire, even though extremely dangerous,
takes more time to start. This delay gives the arsonist
enough time to return to his car and drive past as if he were
going for a midnight ride. He jumps out to save the day and
assists with the evacuation of the building to the extent of
suffering injury including smoke inhalation. This type of be-
havior will happen again and again until he is apprehended.
The difference between the "hero" and this arsonist is the
former is seeking attention while the latter is just looking
for something to do.

T y p i c a l A r s o n Scenarios
A restaurant is no longer turning a profit and property val-
ues in the area are down. The owners decide to recoup their
investment through the insurance company. The restaurant
is entered during the early morning hours. The doors are
pried open and the office is ransacked, a safe may be broken
into or removed to indicate a burglary. A flammable liquid
is poured on the floor and trailers may be used. Pots or
other containers found in the restaurant are used to hold
additional flammable liquid. This procedure is continued
throughout the building and the arsonists leave some type of
delayed fuse mechanism, perhaps a twenty-minute burning
candle at the base of a cup filled with alcohol. Another
possible time-delay mechanism is a coffeemaker filled with
flammable liquids set for a particular time. These mecha-
nisms allow the restaurant owners to exit and get some dis-
tance away before the discovery of the fire.
Two burglars realize that their elderly victims have
awakened and observed them as they are trying to exit the
house. Knowing the elderly couple can identify them as
neighborhood kids, the burglars attack and eventually kill
the couple. In an attempt to conceal the homicides, they
put the couple back in bed and set fire to the bed using
material on hand in an attempt to make it look like an acci-
dental smoking-in-bed fire.
A local gang demands pay up money from a local mer-
chant. The merchant refuses to comply with their demands,
so the gang decides that it's time to teach him a lesson.
Early one morning, a few of the gang members assemble
with a homemade napalm-type bomb bottles filled with
gasoline and soap and a fuse made of cloth stuck into the
neck of the bottle. They walk or drive by the front of the
store, light the cloth fuses, and throw the bottles through
the window causing a fair amount of damage.
Some F i n a l T h o u g h t s o n A r s o n
One thing to remember is that the professional arsonist
mainly uses items to start, spread, and sustain the fire that
are readily found in the building itself. He does not want
to draw undue attention to himself by carrying five-gallon
gas cans around. The arsonist also has to assume that if the
fire is detected early and suppressed, any evidence he left
will make a second attempt more difficult. It may even lead
to his arrest.
The amateur uses large amounts of flammable liquid
to start the fire and combustible materials to spread the
fire. He starts the fire without a delay mechanism, usually
by open flame. In the process, he may even burn himself.
In dealing with arson, we rarely come across any type
of explosive devices. Explosives are usually used just to get
the fire going, but if the building is big enough, there may
be a number of ignition devices found scattered throughout
the property.
For those of you who may be uncertain about what
types of flammable liquids are used, they mainly range from
gasoline to lighter fluid and alcohol. The storage area of a
bar will be used to fuel the fire's growth by starting a fire
underneath or near the liquor supply.
Trailer material can be the flammable liquid itself
poured in a line on the ground. It could also be cloth or
paper soaked in a flammable liquid or a series of small fires
or anything else that would cause the fire to spread through-
out the building.
When we discuss art these days, we're talking about a busi-
ness of far-reaching proportions. Art prices have skyrock-
eted because art is now viewed as a more stable and profit-
able investment than stocks, bonds or mutual funds.
Owning artwork has a uniqueness that other types of invest-
ments may lack. For some, an art collection, whether
Grandma's silver spoons or a van Gogh, is a more intimate
part of a person's life and lifestyle than actual money can
ever be. Art therefore has a dual grip on a person: its value
as an investment and its aesthetic impact. When these types
of objects are stolen, they are often deemed irreplaceable.
There are three main reasons art and jewelry thefts
occur: to get the money from fencing stolen art; a collector
personally safekeeps art as it increases in value; or, for polit-
ical, or possibly sociopolitical reasons sometimes consid-
ered terrorism. Just before the 1994 Winter Olympics in
 Ail, Antique mid Jewel Thieves/ 19

K e e p In Mind . . .
It seems no matter how hard the police work, thefts
of art, jewelry and antiques continue. Before the 1950s,
art, jewelry and precious antiques did not appreciate in
value as rapidly as they have within the last thirty-five to
forty years. Keep this in mind if your art and jewelry theft
story is set in a historical period. Although mankind has
continually produced works of art for over 40,000 years,
art did not become generally perceived as a commodity,
or as a means of economic exchange, until 150 to 200
years ago. A novel that is set in historical times will, of
course, have its period antiques and artwork that are val-
uable. However, the appreciation value will not be as
great as it has been in the last thirty-five to forty years.
Norway, Edvard Munch's The Scream was stolen by abor-
tion protesters in an attempt to negotiate political policy
through terrorism.
One of the most famous politically motivated art thefts
of the twentieth century occurred at the Louvre in 1911
when an Italian house painter stole the Mona Lisa from the
wall where it hung. The Mona Lisa disappeared for approxi-
mately two years. When the thief finally gave himself up,
he claimed that he had only stolen it for political reasons,
and that he had intended to take the painting back to Flor-
ence, Italy, where da Vinci had painted it, and where he
felt it rightfully belonged.

Types o f A r t T h e f t
The past thirty-five to forty years have seen an unprece-
dented boom in organized art robbery running parallel to
an equally unprecedented boom in the legitimate art mar-
ket. To a degree, the thieves help the legitimate dealers,
whether the latter know it or not, because the art market
depends on a pool of homeless works of art fed at one end
by the sale of objects, drained at the other by the forming
of new collections. In the last fifty years that pool has been
increasingly agitated. The turnover of works of art through
auction rooms and dealers has accelerated year by year. At
the same time, the quantity of available works of art by
dead artists is reduced: either through accidents or through
acquisition of this or that Rembrandt by a museum.
It would sensationalize the problem to suggest that the
art market, especially during the 1970s, was heavily depen-
dent on recirculating stolen objects. The proportion is
higher in the field of simple works of art such as silverware,
furniture, drawings, rare prints, engravings, porcelain and
antiquities, than in the area of signed paintings by acknowl-
edged, famous artists. Not only are there more of the former
around, but their histories are infinitely harder to check and
the records of their existence, if there are any, are more
difficult to obtain.
Archaeological Antiquities
Thousands of objects are smuggled yearly from coun-
tries rich in antiquities to countries rich in economy. This
is a particular problem for archaeological artifacts. Many
millions of dollars worth of art are steadily being stolen
from archaeological sites. Once an object is removed from
its original site, the archaeologist has lost a valuable clue to
interpreting a culture. The enormous profitability of acquir-
ing or smuggling antiquities has led to the depletion of cul-
tural treasures in many countries.
Popular Culture
Thieves don't always need high art to make a killing.
Let's take for example, the recent rise in the popularity
of dinosaurs. Let's face it dinosaurs are hot! No need to
remind you of one of the biggest box office hits of late,
Jurassic Park. Along with Jurassic Park, came millions of
dollars in T-shirts, sweatshirts, memorabilia, movies, prints
and novel sales. When you discuss art and jewelry thefts,
you must include other historically significant and desirable
commodities. And what do you think were some of the hot-
test items stolen during the dinosaur revolution of the last
five years? Archaeological findings and prehistoric memo-
rabilia; actual artifacts and dinosaur bones, fossilized dino-
saur eggs, imprints of dinosaur footprints, anything to do
with dinosaurs. It was a hot commodity, and the prices sky-
rocketed.
Organized Crime
Organized criminal elements are turning their atten-
tion to the art world. Organized crime has always been quick
to exploit the trends originally set by legitimate businesses
such as alcohol vendors. In this case, the master criminal
becomes aware of the enormous profit potential of art and
begins to educate and prepare himself for this particular
field. Additionally, just as financial consultants have estab-
lished mutual funds and invested solely in works of art, so
the criminal is now beginning to appreciate the investment
value of art. In fact, even when recoveries are made, the
frequent absence of one or two of the best pieces suggests
stockpiling by the criminal element.
Crime bosses and small-time crooks began to buy mu-
seum catalogs and art magazines and look very hard at the
old and new masters. Compared to burglary or bank rob-
bery, art thefts are easy and pay well for little risk. Many
museums, prior to the 1960s, had never heard of security
alarms, let alone used them. Insurance companies and own-
ers who wanted the unique treasures returned safely would
not argue about rewards or ransoms.
So the crime bosses began to convert their henchmen
into art thieves. When they found the extortion racket
worked, they invented others: dealing stolen religious ob-
jects, altering them and filtering them into an antique mar-
ket; new techniques in art smuggling; and selling novel art
forms such as Hong Kong Ming. An equally inspiring tale
of boldness was when a criminal sold Salvatore Dali one of
his own stolen paintings. Remember that criminals play on
human frailty and sorrow, and the fact that every man be-
lieves himself to be something of a discoverer and cannot
resist the lure of easy money. The attempt by a person to
make quick and easy money is one of the greatest human
instincts.
Forgeries
A unique example of cultural and artistic work exists
in parts of Africa. Much African art is carved in traditional
styles, artificially aged, and then sold under false pretenses.
These forgeries are so well executed, only the most compe-
tent experts are able to detect them. East African carvers
visit museums to study the aging process and style of art
objects. In Nigeria, West Africa, carvers generally have bet-
ter access to museums than in the East, and are able to
familiarize themselves with the art market.
Art Theft to Order
Remember that the art and antique thief does not have
to be the person who physically removes the item from the
home, business or museum. The actual thief, in terms of
the police investigation, would not only be the person who
physically removed the item, but the person who set the
wheels in motion.
For example: We have Mr. Jones, a collector of fine
art and antiques. He's collected nearly all the signed origi-
nal works of Salvatore Dali created during a certain time
period when Dali, let's say, was at a certain level of impres-
sionism in his painting. Mr. Jones does not have one paint-
ing and desires that one very much.
We must remember that artists have periods in their
lives, much like musicians, when their art takes on a certain
style somewhat different from years before and the years
that follow. So this collector, Mr. Jones, simply must have
the one missing painting. He hires a private detective firm
to find the rightful owner of the painting. But, the rightful
owner is determined not to sell. If he still wants the painting,
Mr. Jones must decide to do one of two things:
Scenario 1: He may decide to have another person (a bro-
ker) approach the owner on his behalf for the sale of the
painting. Of course, this is risky because, if the painting is
stolen shortly after the person turns down the offer, the
owner would only have to alert the local authorities as to
who contacted him. However, should the broker approach
the rightful owner and not represent exactly who he is trying
to buy it for, then it cannot be traced as easily. Another
downfall to this type of bid is that the owner will probably
sell it to Mr. Jones at top dollar.
Scenario 2: Now let's proceed to the more common way
of acquiring the desired painting. Mr. Jones will use the
services of a quasi-legal private investigator to determine
the rightful owner and location of the desired painting.
From that point he contacts a fence who he knows will deal
in stolen art and antiques. Of course, these fences are sub-
specialists to regular fences and are extremely difficult to
find unless you know how. In these incidents the art, an-
tique and jewelry fence will not be your corner pawnbroker,
but may in fact be another legitimate dealer or an avid col-
lector of these works.
After reaching out to the professional art fence, it is
the fence's turn to go into action as a broker. The fence
contracts to someone else for the physical theft. In this par-
ticular instance the object is stolen to order.
In It for the Money
Mr. Jones wanted the missing Dali for personal plea-
sure. Now, the professional art thief has a completely differ-
ent set of rules. Although any work of art in theory can be
stolen, its usefulness to a thief depends on a complex web
of interplaying factors. What is the demand on the free mar-
ket for the item? How anonymous is the work of art or how
can its identity be removed without destroying its value? Is
it likely to be cataloged or recorded? Two principles deter-
mine the criminal's final choice: If it is not desirable it will
not sell; if it is well known it can be traced.

The Role of t h e Fence i n A r t T h e f t

In the case of art, jewelry and antique thefts, the fence plays
a crucial and pivotal role in the theft process. A fence, of
course, is a person who will actually receive the property
from the thief, and then either use it for his own benefit,
or turn around and sell it to someone interested in the com-
modity, who in turn may resell it. You can imagine how
difficult it is to get rid of something that is significant histori-
cally and politically, especially immediately after the crime
has been committed. That is why in most of the cases where
there is a major art or jewelry theft, everything has already
been laid in place for the ultimate disposal of that stolen
item.
For example, let's assume there is a family who is very
wealthy and has collected several Salvador Dali paintings.
The home is burglarized, but the wheels were set in motion
weeks to months before for the ultimate disposal of those
paintings. The theft of them will make the local and, some-
times, national newspapers, but by that time, the items will
have already been deposited with their new owner. In this
manner, the fence is acting more in the capacity of a broker,
much like one for stocks or bonds. The art and jewelry thief
must use the fence to dispose of the item in advance, be-
cause of its uniqueness and difficulty of disposing it through
routine channels.
Follow along the progression of a theft to its ultimate
disposal. Let's take the case of a very famous stamp collec-
tor. He has the stamp series issued in 1919 honoring air-
planes in the United States. One stamp was accidently
minted upside down and 1,000 pieces were issued. Even
though many people recognized this to be collectible back
in 1919, let's presume that 100 to 150 of the stamps were
used and postmarked by the Post Office.
So now we have 850 uncirculated stamps grabbed up
by collectors back in 1919. Be aware of the fact that every
person who collected the stamp back in 1919 has most likely
either kept it, sold it or had it stolen since the date it was
struck. People who collect stamps and have antique and
extremely valuable collections usually know who has the
missing items they need for their collection. People involved
in art and antique collecting buy several items that they can
use as leverage to obtain the item that they really want.
Most collectors would never dream of stealing from other
collectors; part of the fun for them is the bargaining and
trading. But, there are people who are so engrossed in com-
pleting their collection that they will do anything to obtain
the missing piece or pieces.

C a p t u r i n g A r t a n d J e w e l r y Thieves
Art theft and crooked fences alone keep many police forces
throughout the world occupied. More than $200 million in
art objects are stolen every year, making such thefts the
biggest criminal pursuits after international smuggling and
selling of drugs like heroin and cocaine. To combat this
epidemic of art crime, police in Europe and America have
set up special art theft squads.
The Art Squad
Penalties for art crimes are much stiffer in England
than in the United States. In England, art theft is taken very
seriously, and the minimum sentence is usually five years.
The English feel that when art is stolen, part of the national
heritage is also stolen. In the United States, however, jail
sentences for art-related crimes are usually the exception,
rather than the rule.
London is a clearinghouse for black market art and
antiques, but it has one of the most efficient art detective
units in the world. The Art Squad was established in 1968
at New Scotland Yard with approximately eleven detec-
tives, and it has recovered more than $350 million dollars
worth of stolen art. Among the first to use a computer, Scot-
land Yard has built up an international log of some 25,000
paintings and sculptures and other art treasures a sort of
identification kit. The description of artworks is fed into a
mainframe computer, and within seconds, Scotland Yard
can track an item offered for sale to an auction house or
recovered by police forces throughout the world.
Whenever an art loss is reported, details of the stolen
pieces are published in the top art and antiques magazines.
This helps to stop the sale of the object on the open market
since legitimate dealers resent the intrusion of illegitimate
dealers into the art market. In addition, the art squad has
encouraged dealers to organize and communicate. For ex-
ample, if Dealer A suffers a loss, he would contact Dealers
B and C, who in turn contact two more and so on. It is hoped
that the publicity would keep the theft from progressing into
a sale.
Members of the New Scotland Yard Art Squad are a
certain breed. Not only do they know the foremost in detec-
tion methods and how to capture criminals, but they also
bring a commitment to art and its heritage. Many members
have a particular interest of their own, such as paintings or
sculpture, furniture, silver, glass or antiques. They bring the
perspective of collectors to the squad, which is invaluable.
Art and Jewelry Theft Bureau of NYC
The New York City Police Department is also active
in catching art thieves with its undercover Art and Jewelry
Theft Bureau. Since New York and London are key finan-
cial centers in the international art market, it is imperative
that New York City occupy this position in the capture of
art thieves. One of the most famous art theft detectives ever
assigned to the Theft Bureau was Robert Volpe. Volpe is
an artist as well as a detective, and it is this commitment to
the art world that enabled Volpe to infiltrate many major
art thefts rings. He was instrumental in recovering millions
of dollars worth of art and jewelry and precious antiques,
sculpture and the likes from the rings of thieves who at-
tempted to sell it. Detective Volpe is one of the new breed
of police officers who have become more and more special-
ized in areas of detective work.
Interpol
Detectives trained in the art market and experienced
in the methods of dealers and crime syndicates specializing
in art robberies have linked their efforts to beat the interna-
tional racket. Interpol headquarters, located just outside
Paris, receives dozens of reports of stolen paintings, sculp-
tures and other rare objects and immediately circulates
them to offices throughout the world. These bulletins go
down the line to regional police forces who then check with
their informants and contacts in the art trade. More than
in any other criminal investigation, speed is vital in dissemi-
nating this information and publicizing it in the press and
on television. Most stolen art sells more easily outside its
country of origin, where it goes unrecognized. But once a
stolen masterpiece or a valuable object appears in the press,
on television or in trade publications, no honest dealer will
touch it, and even the most crooked fence handles it with
extreme care.
Interpol reinforces its weekly bulletin with a monthly
sheet listing the twelve most wanted works of art with pic-
tures, descriptions, and details of their theft. This interna-
tional organization of police covers most of the world. Its
offices around the world are staffed by local detectives who
act as liaisons between Interpol and forces like the New
York City Police Department, Scotland Yard, and the
F.B.I. If it were not for the actions of Interpol, hundreds
of paintings smuggled across borders would have vanished
forever due to their international appeal.
Avoiding Capture
Much stolen art goes underground for many years until
it has established a new sales pedigree and everyone has
forgotten about the theft. Then it can reappear in the hands
of a private dealer or even in an auction room for a legiti-
mate sale.
Big crime bosses place stolen objects in a bank vault
until the country's statute of limitations runs out and pre-
cludes their prosecution. They can then offer the painting
even to its original owner for much more than it would fetch
on the black market and often the painting or other art
object has doubled its value during its storage.

Criminal Penalties for Art Theft

On both the national and international levels, there are few
legal precedents and little legislation for dealing with art
crime. For some reason, the penalties for art crime, espe-
cially in the United States, have been very light. Art and
jewelry theft is close to a white collar crime, since no one
was physically injured. Public opinion is ambivalent toward
the matter because the general public doesn't have the
means to deal in art, antique and jewelry collections, so, its
theft does not affect them.
If the theft involves two different countries, e.g., the
thieves steal art from France and take it to Holland, Hol-
land may decide not to investigate. In other words, what is
unpardonable to one government may not even be criminal
to another. Despite the ambiguous opinions some govern-
ments and police agencies have on this subject, there seems
to be relative agreement on one point: theft and vandalism,
no matter what the target, constitute a criminal act, but the
penalties for art and jewelry thefts are usually very light.

Conclusion
Art crime is changing from a romantic Robin Hood affair,
often committed with an artistic flair, to a cold and imper-
sonal act committed purely for money and sometimes with
violence. Professional thieves over the years have grown
more ruthless as armed holdups in Montreal and some U.S.
galleries, as well as raids in Paris, have proven. In fact, secu-
rity guards, vaults and detection equipment seem to chal-
lenge the art thief.
Art thieves have a vast and ever-growing territory, un-
limited cultural treasures to steal, and an expanding under-
ground network to help them dispose of their loot. As more
individuals and institutions place their wealth in art, thefts
increase. Additionally, as museums proliferate throughout
the United States and Europe, this decreases the amount
of artwork available to the private collector. It is a simple
case of supply and demand.
Also remember when writing about art theft that the
art market has always been international; art crime is now
also becoming so. This lends some colorful characters of
thieves, fences and purchasers for your novels. Should you
be writing about an art theft, it can encompass the globe.
The unique quality of the work makes the disposal of art-
work the key to profitable criminal activity. Whereas dia-
monds, gold and other items can be re-cut, melted down or
otherwise disguised without too much effect on their resale
value, a painting or sculpture is unique. It cannot be altered
and retain its original value.
Unlike narcotics, which have to be traded in an illegal
market, art has a legitimate market. The thief therefore has
to find a means of disposing of his cache and of recirculating
it in the legitimate market; once he has achieved this, he is
safe, or as safe as he will ever be. The more valuable and
well known the target, the greater the degree of risk and the
more resourceful his plan of disposal must be. Smuggling
objects to another country is one solution because this less-
ens or postpones the risk of the object's discovery and sub-
sequent identification.
No amount of security or vigilance can stop art thieves
as long as prices soar, and masterpieces fetch fabulous sums
of money. Even the most efficient art squad lags one step
behind determined thieves. It seems that the people who
are immersed in the collection of art, antiques and jewelry
have themselves forced the price up and are paying for art
theft. As for Mauro and me, we're keeping a closer watch
on our collection of velvet Elvises!
In the United States, a vehicle is stolen every twenty sec-
onds. Auto theft is an $8 billion a year industry for criminals.
Despite the new and ever-increasing security protections
designed to foil theft attempts, auto theft is increasing
yearly. State lawmakers and the federal government have
increased the penalties for automobile thefts because of
these statistics.
Surprisingly enough, carelessness in securing vehicles
accounts for more than 20 percent of auto theft: one or
more of the doors left unlocked, a window left down or
partially open, a security system left unactivated. One or
more of these items will attract thieves so that when we
come out of the store or leave work for the trip home, we
find only an empty parking space.
This chapter explores the methods vehicle thieves em-
ploy to secure their bounty. It will also explain the various
enterprises that today's criminals use to commit their
crimes.

Who's the Victim?

Today, vehicle theft is viewed as a victimless crime. The
only ones who seem to get hurt are the insurance compa-
nies, who increase their fees to offset any losses. If you look
at what happens when a vehicle is stolen, one could very
easily see the positive side.
Your car is stolen, but you have insurance to cover
your loss; therefore, you basically get a new car out of it.
The car dealer is happy because you have to buy a new car
from him, the car manufacturer is happy because that's one
less car in his inventory, the car thief is happy because he's
going to make money from stealing the car. If the car is sent
to a chop shop, they are happy because they can sell the
parts from your stolen car to a body repair station for half
the price of that of the manufacturer. Now, the body shop
is happy because later he can rip off the insurance company
by charging full price for the parts he obtained cheaply from
the chop shop. The owner of the vehicle that is getting re-
paired is happy because the body shop owner is absorbing
his deductible. So, everybody is happy, and we have a victim-
less crime.
The only problem with this so-called victimless crime
is that we are paying for it in injury, death and property
damage caused by criminals fleeing capture. We also pay
in the form of higher insurance premiums some experts
believe that a low estimation would be between ten and
twenty percent; one source stated that twenty-one cents of
every dollar in premiums goes to cover fraud and theft
losses.

Basic A u t o T h e f t
Juveniles, as young as ten years old, make up the majority
of perpetrators who steal automobiles from the streets and
parking lots of America. These juvenile offenders know that
if apprehended, they will get little or no jail time for their
crimes. The going price for a stolen vehicle is around five
hundred dollars, so it is easy to see why stealing cars is so
attractive to inner-city kids.
Juvenile auto thieves scour streets and parking lots try-
ing to find an unsecured vehicle. By unsecured we mean
doors unlocked, windows partly or fully open, and keys in
the ignition. If, by chance, the vehicle is unlocked and the
keys left inside, which is a petty crime in many localities,
our young criminals will get into the vehicle, start it, and
drive away to a prearranged location.
Sometimes a chop shop will place an order for a partic-
ular type of vehicle. The auto thief will conduct a surveil-
lance of malls, health clubs or upscale lounges and restau-
rants. One method of this surveillance is to have a passenger
van shuttle around a group of car thieves through the afore-
mentioned areas. When a vehicle is located, the driver will
stop the van letting out one of his passengers with instruc-
tions to steal the vehicle.
The Jimmie
The first option to gain entry into a locked car is to
pick the lock. A device called a jimmie is used. A jimmie is
made from spring steel and is inserted between the window
and the rubber trim that protects the inside of the door.
The jimmie has a soft rubber or plastic handle on one end
and, on the other, a series of notches that can manipulate
the lock mechanism. A jimmie can't be used on vehicles
where the locking mechanism is electronic.
There are other types of jimmies designed to enter
between the rubber window molding and the glass itself.
The working end of this jimmie is hooked to the door lock
inside the vehicle and just pulled up. Anti-theft door locks
are tapered to prevent using a jimmie, but thieves place a
piece of tape onto the working end of the jimmie to cause
enough friction to pop open the door lock.
Other jimmies are designed to defeat locks located on
the side of the door nearer to the dashboard. These jimmies
are placed in the same way as above, but closer to the dash-
board. For cheap thieves, a simple coat hanger can be bent
and twisted into the same configurations as professional
jimmies but are less conspicuous if the thief is stopped and
questioned by the police.
Ninja Rocks
A new method of gaining entry into vehicles is the
Ninja Rock a.3/8-inchcube-shaped white piece of porce-
lain. It was first used by Southeast Asian gangs. The Ninja
Rock, when thrown at a moderate speed, will break and
shatter any glass with little or no sound, and can easily be
left at a scene with little chance of detection and, therefore,
little chance of discovery.
Digital Door Locks
Vehicles with digital or punch-the-numbers door locks
are the easiest to gain entry. Just think: You just paid eigh-
teen hundred dollars for this luxury option, and all a car
thief has to do to open your door is simply disconnect the
battery. Because of an inherent safety feature designed to
unlock your doors in case of an accident, your vehicle can
easily be opened if it has this type of lock. Our clever young
thieves will perform their task and drive away with your car
in twenty to thirty seconds.
Computer-Aided Locks
Sophisticated car thieves who go after the more desir-
able luxury vehicles use a different approach. They will at-
tempt to obtain a key for the vehicle to defeat both the
alarm system and locks. The manufacturers of the more
expensive luxury vehicles are taking a number of precau-
tions to assure the consumer that their vehicles are pro-
tected from theft. Companies have manufactured keys with
security devices such as computer chips embedded right on
the keys themselves. These vehicles need to be stolen with-
out any damage to them, so the key is mandatory. On most
new cars, one key will operate both door locks, the ignition,
the glove box and the trunk.
One of the ways to get the key is by obtaining the igni-
tion key code number, which is sometimes found behind the
ashtray. The ignition key code number is printed on a
sticker inside the door or on the nonvisible inside door lock
itself. The key can be duplicated right at the scene by using
a portable key maker.
A vehicle can be stolen from a parking garage by either
stealing the keys from the attendant's booth, bribing the
attendant, or forcing the attendant to turn over the keys of
the vehicle marked for theft. In parking garages, if the park-
ing attendant is robbed of the keys, any number of vehicles
can be stolen.
Bump and Run
Another method of stealing a luxury car is the bump
and run. This seems to be the method of choice for obtaining
luxury or in-demand vehicles. A bump and run occurs as
follows: A chase vehicle follows a luxury car with only the
driver in it until a semi-secluded area is available. When
the target car is moving slowly, or is stopped, the chase
vehicle will then bump into the rear of the vehicle. When
the driver jumps out to survey the damage, a second person
jumps into the vehicle and drives away. The stolen car is
then parked at a nearby parking garage. Once in the garage,
the vehicle check-in ticket, used to retrieve the car from the
garage, can be sold, or the stolen vehicle can have its license
plates changed to avoid detection. It is not uncommon to
have this vehicle moved from parking garage to parking ga-
rage daily or weekly.
Desirable vehicles are becoming harder and harder to
obtain, so thieves have to invent more ways of obtaining
these vehicles with little or no damage. Because of these
vehicles' protection systems, owners are driving around con-
fident that their vehicle will not be stolen. This confidence
tends to aid the thief in his task.
Getting It Started
Once inside the vehicle, there are a number of ways
to get it started. If the vehicle is a General Motors or Jeep
product, the thief breaks open the left side of the steering
column, and inserts a screwdriver directly below the turn
signal into a round cup mechanism. This will start the vehi-
cle. To disengage the steering wheel lock, thieves use a de-
vice, also used by auto body repairmen and called a dent
puller, or slap-hammer. A dent puller has a plastic or rubber
handle on one end and a strong steel self-tapping screw on
the other. In the middle is a weighted grip that slides from
one end of the tool to the other. Once the screw is inserted
into the ignition key slot, the weighted grip is moved back
and forth causing the ignition lock to pop out, releasing the
steering wheel lock.
If the vehicle is a Ford truck, another system can be
used to start the vehicle. Reach under the steering column,
pull the ignition wires out, and attach them to the extra
ignition locking system, turn the key, and you're off.

Carjacking
The latest trend in stealing cars is carjacking, which is one
of the simplest and most straightforward types of crime that
exists in America today. Carjacking differs from auto theft
in that the vehicle is stolen while the owner is in it as op-
posed to stealing it without the owner's knowledge. Carjack-
ing generally occurs in urban and densely populated areas
as opposed to suburban and rural areas, because once taken
by criminals the vehicle can easily be lost in traffic and con-
gestion.
There are many reasons why a vehicle is carjacked:
1. The need for immediate transportation such as after
a burglary, armed robbery, murder or kidnapping.
2. To sell the vehicle and use the money for other crimi-
nal purposes.
3. Thrillseekers who desire a vehicle to joyride in and
who will ultimately abandon the vehicle, sometimes
setting it on fire. This is most frequently done by teen-
agers. Sometimes gangs in urban ghettos require this
as an initiation into the gang.
4. The carjacker intends to kidnap the person operating
the vehicle and will use the car to take the owner to
an area where the owner will be raped, murdered,
 robbed, beaten or abandoned.
The frequency of carjacking has created a market for alarms
to combat it: self-defense weapons, ranging from mini-stun
guns to mace, hot pepper spray, and electronic alarms that
scream with ninety decibels or more of pulsating power.
Carjacking is a direct physical confrontation, which could
either go smoothly, the operator simply gives up his car, or
more dangerously, there is a struggle and the operator ends
up injured or killed.
Because carjacking occurs at such a fast pacethe
owner is immediately demanded to exit the vehicle or drive
the carjacker somewhere it is the type of crime that is
fraught with tremendous stress. Carjackers should be por-
trayed in your works as highly stressed individuals willing
to take tremendous risks and willing to carry out threats.
Because of the violence associated with carjackings,
Congress passed the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992, which
makes carjacking a federal offense. If apprehended and
convicted of carjacking, the penalties imposed are much
more severe than for regular car theft, so severe that not
only are carjackers heavily fined, they can be sentenced to
life in prison.
Methods of Carjacking
Here are few ways carjackers operate:
Carjacking at a Mall Parking Lot. This is one of the most
popular and easiest carjackings to perform. The carjacker
waits between cars or leans against a car and waits for the
person to enter their vehicle. A carjacker will usually wait
by vehicles parked far away from the stores so that there
are not many people around to witness the incident. Some
people park far away, because they have brand new vehicles
and do not want them dented by other car doors opening
against them.
Once the person puts the key in the door lock and
unlocks the car, the carjacker has access to the vehicle, the
person and the keys. During 1992 and 1993, Mauro and I
experienced in our law enforcement area a tremendous
surge in these types of carjackings, especially around Christ-
mas. Although many people thought the carjackers in-
tended to steal the vehicle and rob them, it appeared many
of these carjackers ultimately took their female victims hos-
tage, robbed them and raped them.
Sometimes, carjackers will actually find a car whose
owner has left it open and hide in the backseat waiting for
the owner to return. In this scenario the owner knows the
door is open and will simply enter the car and place the key
in the ignition. Then he or she is suddenly confronted by a
knife- or gun-wielding carjacker. At this point the carjacker
will order the person to either exit the vehicle and leave his
keys or to drive him to a location where the person is
robbed, raped or sometimes murdered.
Another method is to have a different carjacker pre-
tend to examine a tire or will make a tire flat. The "disabled
car" is next to the target vehicle. When the victim returns
to her car, the carjacker will strike up a conversation about
his "dilemma" in having his tires go flat on him, even though
the vehicle may not belong to the carjacker. He may then
ask the woman to contact the police for him or to give him
a lift to the nearest service station so that he can get assis-
tance. Of course, once inside the woman's vehicle, he begins
his reign of terror.
We have seen many instances in recent years where
carjackers have forced the owner of a car from their vehicle
in a mall parking lot and taken off only to find that they
have an infant in the backseat. We have never heard of an
incident in which the infant was harmed; usually the vehicle
is abandoned a short time later. It seems as if infants are
too much for carjackers to handle.
Random Carjacking in Urban Areas. This type of car-
jacking occurs when a vehicle has pulled up to either a stop
sign or a red light in a largely urban and heavily populated
area. The carjacker walks up to the driver's window, pro-
duces a handgun or a knife, menaces the person with it, and
orders the owner either to step out or to move over, at which
point the carjacker will jump into the vehicle.
 When Joe was working as a detective for the Brooklyn
District Attorney's Office, he investigated an incident
that could only happen in New York. A woman was driv-
ing her car on Flatbush Avenue near Long Island College
when she was carjacked at a red light. The carjacker ap-
proached her vehicle on foot from behind, pulled open
the door, and produced a handgun. He shoved the hand-
gun in the woman's face and ordered her to step out of
the car. The woman, terrified, was thrown to the ground
and the carjacker sped off in her vehicle, south on Flat-
bush Avenue.
The carjacker headed to the East New York section
of Brooklyn. While the carjacker was stopped at a stop
sign on the corner of Herzl Street, he had his carjacked
vehicle carjacked! Yes, that's right, while carjacker # 1
was stopped, another carjacker appeared, opened the
door of the vehicle, and attempted to pull carjacker #1
out. Carjacker #2, realizing that the occupant was armed,
produced a handgun and a gun battle ensued right in the
street.
Carjacker #2 was mortally wounded; however, car-
jacker #1 was shot in the neck and still lying on the
ground when the police arrived. The police, thinking that
carjacker # 1 was the owner of the vehicle, and, therefore,
the victim, removed him to the hospital where he was
treated and interviewed. Carjacker #1, smart enough to
realize that no one knew he had carjacked the vehicle,
pretended to be the owner. Of course, once his identity
was confirmed and the report of the original carjacking
in another section of Brooklyn filtered down, carjacker
#1 was arrested by detectives.
On other occasions the carjacker will attempt entry
from the passenger side. He produces a knife or gun and
orders the driver to take him to a particular location or to
simply drive around until further instructions are given.
This type of carjacker has an emergency and selects the
vehicle simply by which one is most convenient.
 The only way to avoid being carjacked in these circum-
stances is to lock your doors and keep your windows rolled
up so a carjacker cannot easily obtain entry into a vehicle.
Suburbs and Rural Areas. A carjacker will usually walk
in front of a vehicle that has come to a stop or is at a light
and pretend to pass out. At this point ninety-nine percent
of drivers will exit the vehicle to see if the person is all right.
The carjacker produces a knife or a handgun and comman-
deers the car.
The Bump and Take. A person will be operating their car
on a road when they will suddenly be tapped from behind
by another vehicle. While the victim and the carjacker exit
their vehicles to check the damage, a passenger from the
carjacker's vehicle will come around and steal the car. Quite
often the vehicle used to bump the first vehicle was also
carjacked, or stolen. This way, carjackers get two cars within
a very short period of time.

Chop Shops
Chop shop is a law enforcement slang name for a location
where stolen vehicles are dismantled and the parts sold off
to garages and body shops at below market value. Most
vehicles that are stolen are sold to chop shop operations for
around five hundred dollars. These chop shops strip the
vehicle and can make an enormous cash return on their
investment, as much as double the initial selling price of the
vehicle.
Chop shops can be found just about anywhere even
in the street, mostly the dead-end type. Vacant lots on dead-
end streets are ideal because the trees located on these lots
can be used to lift an engine or transmission out of the
vehicle by using a chain over a strong branch. A car can be
stripped of all sellable parts in under half an hour by a group
of professionals. By removing twenty bolts, the whole front
end, including the hood, both fenders, bumper and grill,
can be separated from the vehicle. Front ends on late model
cars are most desirable because they are used as replace-
ment parts for vehicles damaged in accidents and front
end damage is the most common result of an accident.
Another profitable section of a stolen vehicle is the
rear end for the same reason. On late-model vehicles, re-
placement parts are hard to find because of the demand for
the complete vehicle. These parts are extremely difficult to
trace because there are no markings that will indicate they
were removed from a particular vehicle.
The newest item to steal from vehicles is the air bag.
Air bags are sold legitimately for around $1200; stolen air
bags are sold for $200 to $500. The bags are stolen and sold
to auto repair shops to be installed in vehicles with accident
damage to replace used air bags. Thieves have to be careful
when stealing these items as setting them off makes them
useless.
Chop shops have one or more of the following indica-
tions that illegal activity is being conducted: Juveniles are
the leading individuals when it comes to stealing vehicles,
so you will see the same faces of young people hanging
around these shops. Once the word is out that a location is
buying stolen vehicles, our young thieves will attempt to
please their buyers by following through with their needs.
Junk yards make ideal locations for chop shops be-
cause they are usually out of public sight, making it difficult
to observe everyday operations. These yards often get their
vehicles from owners who are dissatisfied with their present
vehicle because of expensive car payments, mechanical
problems, high mileage, or they just don't want the vehicle
anymore. The owner of the vehicle pays a small fee and his
vehicle is dismantled by the junk yard. All parts that have
the vehicle identification number (often referred to as the
VIN) will be destroyed by crushing. The owner will then
report the vehicle stolen and collect his insurance.
Chop shops are also used to make stolen vehicles legal.
Skilled personnel can alter the vehicle identification num-
bers. This craftsman can earn as much as $3,500 per vehicle.
Vehicle identification number plates are carefully removed
from vehicles totalled in accidents and then installed onto
the stolen vehicles. The stolen vehicle can then be regis-
tered. Chop shops also use counterfeit credentials to obtain
valid titles.
Chop shops also make a profit from odometer roll-
back. An odometer rollback is performed to reduce high
mileage on a vehicle that is fairly new to increase its market
value or comply with a lease agreement. The National High-
way Traffic Safety Association reported that odometer roll-
back annual loss is between $3 and $4 billion. One way to
roll back the odometer is to falsify the title prior to resale.
Another method is to first detail the vehicle to improve
the way it looks: a good wash and waxing, new tires, floor
carpeting, brake and gas pedals. A person known in the
trade as a clocker physically turns back the odometer, which
only takes a few minutes using screwdrivers and lock picks.
These vehicles can then be sold at auction houses or to used
car dealers for an increased profit.
Many chop shops are located in small garages in a resi-
dential community. These garages will be detached from
the main house and out of view of the street. Inside these
garages will be the tools necessary to completely strip the
vehicles using a minimal amount of time. There will be an
engine hoist, assorted jacks, air compressor, power and
hand tools. To avoid detection, one vehicle will be disassem-
bled at a time. The only problem with operations like this
is the disposal of unsellable portions. The metal portions
can be torched, that is cut up using a welding torch, or cut
using various hand and motorized metal saws. These parts
can be transported to a salvage yard and sold as scrap.
The other nonsellable pieces, cloths and other ma-
terial that are worthless, can be disposed of as trash. The
only problem with this is that apprehension is likely if an
endless supply of nonuseable automobile parts is found in
the trash. Some of our backyard chop shops will make mid-
night raids to unauthorized dumping locations to dispose
of their unmarketable goods.
Because chop shops want to avoid detection, they will
transport their items for sale in unmarked pickups, light
hauling vans or trucks. This is a red flag to the police be-
 Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN)
For those of you who don't quite understand the im-
portance of VINs, we will take a moment to explain it.
Go out to your vehicle and look into your car through
the windshield to the top of your dashboard on the driv-
er's side. Sometimes it will be on the windshield post on
the driver's side. The VIN is on a small rectangular plate
attached to the car with two rivets, one on each side.
These rivets are unique in themselves because their
heads, the part which is visible to you, have a shape for
each make of vehicle. We are told that these rivets are a
controlled item and cannot be purchased readily. The
VIN itself is seventeen characters, both letters and num-
bers. This series of characters specifies the vehicle's
make, model, type, and where and when it was manufac-
tured. The VIN is also stamped on the engine and trans-
mission and may sometimes be found on a sticker on the
driver's side door. Each manufacturer also places the
VIN in a hidden location somewhere on the frame, as a
last resort to identify the vehicle if the engine or transmis-
sion is missing or has been replaced. The manufacturer
changes the location of the "hidden VIN" each year.
Only the manufacturer, insurance companies and law en-
forcement agencies know the location of the hidden VIN.
When a police officer is comparing the VINs on the
vehicle's registration and the VIN plate behind the wind-
shield, he may also check the sticker on the door. If this
sticker is missing, this is a good indicator to the police
officer that something is wrong.

cause legitimate businesses advertise on the side of their

vehicles.
Buildings used for chop shops can be legitimate auto-
mobile repair or collision repair centers. To avoid detection,
off hour late nights and weekends are used to cut up illegally
obtained vehicles. These legitimate establishments will in-
crease their business by installing stolen vehicle parts onto
accident-damaged vehicles at a cheaper rate. One good in-
dicator that a legitimate dealer is using stolen vehicle parts
is absorbing a large insurance deductible in the repair cost
of the damaged vehicle.

V e h i c l e s S t o l e n f o r Export
Stolen vehicles for export into Central and South America,
the Caribbean and Mexico are in high demand. Mexico is
mainly used as a location for chop shops because of a treaty
which states that stolen vehicles must be returned to the
United States. Mexico is the only country that has this treaty
stipulation. Because of the number of mountainous regions
and poor road conditions in Central America, South
America and the Caribbean, the preferred vehicles are
4 x 4-wheel drives. Officials will make no attempt in these
countries to put a halt to the import of these vehicles. A
good portion of these stolen vehicles are used by govern-
ment agencies and upper-class residents. Because of this,
the cars must be undamaged and are stolen with the keys.
Once the vehicles are stolen, they are shipped out of
the country through freight haulers commercial shipping
lines that use steel shipping containers, which can contain
up to two vehicles. To get through United States Customs
Service, they use forged documents with altered VINs or
inaccurate shipping contents (the vehicles are usually listed
as household goods).
In the Caribbean, a law enforcement study reported
that one out of every five vehicles shipped from the United
States showed signs of being stolen. For vehicles valued over
$16,000, the percentage changed to four of every five vehi-
cles stolen from the United States. The amazing thing to
remember is that there is a waiting list of buyers who will
pay as much as twice the original purchase price of the vehi-
cle knowing it was stolen from the United States. Luxury
and 4 x 4-wheel drive vehicles are very hard to come by in
developing countries. Wealthy customers are willing to pay
the extra price for these vehicles, creating a high demand
for stolen cars.
 An important consideration in exporting stolen vehi-
cles is the distance the vehicle must be moved to reach a
port. Car thieves do not want to get caught and this can
easily occur when transporting the stolen vehicle to the port.
One method to avoid apprehension is to haul the stolen
vehicles in a car carrier. Car carriers, unless they violate a
traffic law, are unlikely to be stopped. One problem with
this method of transportation is that legitimate car carriers
transport one make of vehicle. When transporting stolen
vehicles, multiple makes are on board a red flag for law
enforcement.
The United States Customs Service, in an attempt to
slow the shipping of stolen vehicles out of the country, ap-
plies for and receives regulations that place a time limit on
vehicles for export. The vehicles must be registered several
days before shippingenough time that the proper inspec-
tion and credential-checking can be performed. Unfortu-
nately, resourceful thieves can circumvent this. They pur-
chase a vehicle from an automobile dealership and ship it
to a country. Then they remove the VIN plates, the paper-
work, and the plates, send them back to the United States
and place them on a similar, but stolen, vehicle. This stolen
vehicle is then shipped following regular procedures from
the United States to the country where it was requested.
G r a y M a r k e t Vehicles
A gray market vehicle is basically any vehicle manufactured
in a foreign country for use in that country and not for ex-
port into the United States. These vehicles are not made
according to the United States's emissions and safety stan-
dards and often have defects that could result in fires and
poor performance; some even lack rearview and passenger-
side mirrors. These vehicles are usually represented as vehi-
cles that have been converted to United States standards,
but nothing has been changed.
Gray market vehicles are ideal candidates for insur-
ance fraud because they are cheaper to obtain, thus making
market value higher than purchase price. The owner can
purchase the gray market vehicle, sell it to a chop shop,
report it stolen, and recoup a sizable profit from the insur-
ance company.
H e a v y I n d u s t r i a l a n d Construction
Equipment
Insurance companies estimate that heavy industrial con-
struction and farm vehicle thefts create a billion dollar a
year loss. These types of vehicles contain few if any anti-
theft devices and some can even be started without a key.
They are easy targets because they are often found in vacant
lots and in rural areas. The method our thieves use is very
simple: They climb aboard, start the engine, and drive away.
Sometimes the vehicles are placed onto a semi-tractor
trailer. This operation requires at least two people.
Once the vehicle is obtained, it will be sold using phony
documentation, either by direct sale or auction. There is
little or no paperwork involved with these vehicles because
they are not registered since they are mostly driven off-
road. The only identification on some of these vehicles is an
engine number, so fraudulent paperwork is easy to obtain.

Hijacking
Remember that the hijacking of today is an interesting re-
newal of the hijacking that occurred in the ancient history
of this country. Stagecoaches, trucks, caravans, merchant
ships and other types of transportation have, in their time,
been taken by what was known in the past as "highlanding."
But, the modern hijacker has exceeded his predecessors in
both the amount of earnings and in the finesse and skill
required.
In a single hijacking, several hundred thousand dollars
worth of easily marketable merchandise is available. This is
because the capacity of the modern tractor trailer truck is
enormous. The items taken during a hijacking are usually
consumer-oriented goods, which can easily be sold. Items
such as liquor, television sets, refrigerators, washing ma-
chines, and cigarettes are commonly stolen.
Truck hijacking seems to be mainly an organized crime
caper. We all know that teamsters have a certain amount
of organized crime behind them. Because of this, schedules,
routes, drivers and cargo can all be manipulated for the
benefit of the thieves.
Hijacking while the vehicle is in motion on its route
takes a series of operations that require skillful planning,
perfect timing and expert execution. At the peak level of
organization, a hijacking gang will work in the following
manner: The fingerman (usually an employee of a trucking
firm) informs the gang of an expected shipment, including
the nature of the merchandise, the schedule, the make of
the truck, and the license plate number. The spotter points
out the truck to the men actually doing the hijacking and
follows it to the drop (area where merchandise is unloaded).
The gunmen stop the truck at a prearranged location and
either remove the driver to their car or bind, gag and place
him in the hijacked truck.
A hijacker without a reliable fence is at a very serious
disadvantage. The fence plays a major role in the success
of these types of crimes. Many hijackings are steal-to-order
jobs. Once a truck is targeted and selected because of the
cargo it carries, organized crime will investigate the vulnera-
bility of the trucking company for a theft. Many times the
hijacked loads are sold to persons even before they are sto-
len. You may recall during the gasoline shortage of the
1970s a rash of gasoline truck hijackings.
The Shipping Process
Let's talk about the shipping process, which hijackers
are very familiar with. About 50 percent of all hijackings
are inside jobs. Let's follow a carton of clothing being
shipped from Harry's Hotpants in New York City to Mimi's
Minis in Miami, Florida:
The Packager. At Harry's Hotpants (the shipper), the
goods are carefully packed in cardboard containers, which
are then steel strapped. The name and address of Mimi's
is placed on labels stuck to the side of each carton. The
order numbers are also placed on the side of each box.
The Traffic Manager. He prepares what is known as a bill
of lading in triplicate describing the shipment and giving it
an order number.
The Shipping Clerk. The shipping clerk of Harry's calls
the trucking company to request that they make a pick-up.
The Dispatcher. After receiving the request from the ship-
ping clerk, the dispatcher of the trucking company orders
one of the drivers working in the neighborhood to make the
pick-up.
The City Pick-Up Driver. The driver makes the pick-up
after first checking the packaging and the labeling of each
carton. He proceeds to the motor freight terminal. Best
practices require him to close and lock a steel folding gate
after each pick-up.
The Freight Terminal Action. At the motorfreight termi-
nal, the shipment is unloaded onto a platform by the truck
driver who picked it up. A manifest is written and the traffic
and billing department of the transportation company re-
ceives the bill of lading. A waybill number is assigned to the
shipment.
Terminal Loading. The shipment is then placed on a
trailer, the doors are closed, and the transportation com-
pany lock is affixed together with the numbered, impressed
seal. The seal number is recorded by the dispatcher. The
seal number is also placed on the manifest and on the road
driver's dispatch order. This is a separate seal number used
just to protect the integrity of the shipment.
Alarm System. The trailer is then assigned to a tractor.
Ideally, it is equipped with an automatic alarm that will
sound a warning if it is disturbed at any time while in transit
or unattended. The alarm is set by the dispatcher at the
terminal with a master key. Some of the alarms, which you
may have seen on the sides of trucks, are manufactured
by Babaco. This alarm can now be turned off only by the
dispatcher in Miami, Florida, with his master key.
The Road Drivers. The driver receives his instructions
from the dispatcher: he is to be relieved by two other drivers
in relay along the Eastern Seaboard route. In compliance
with Inter-State Commerce Commission regulations, he will
maintain a driver's log showing the times of driving and
the times of rest. As an additional check, some tractors are
equipped with an instrument that records automatically the
periods of driving and stopping as well as the speed of the
vehicle.
Arrival. Upon reaching the Miami terminal, the driver
checks in with the Miami dispatcher and gives him a report
of the trip, a copy of the logs, and a pouch containing bills
and instructions concerning the load. The shipment is then
unloaded and checked against the manifest. It is imperative,
at this point, that the seal has not been disturbed. If that
seal is broken, of course, it will mean that someone has had
access to the shipment while it was in transit from Harry's
Hotpants to Mimi's Minis.
The City Delivery. At the Miami terminal, the cartons are
checked and loaded into a city or local delivery truck, which
goes to Mimi's clothing warehouse. The doors are unlocked
and the cartons are placed on the platform where they are
checked by the receiving clerk who signs the waybill. He
may mark the cartons with the date and time of delivery and
a symbol to indicate if they were in acceptable condition.
Let's say our bad guy reviews the shipping orders and
knows that a truckload of brand new, top-of-the-line, large-
screen TVs is being transported from San Francisco to New
York City. Using their influence, the bad guys install a
driver loyal to the cause. This driver will be given a route
to follow, but prior to arriving in New York City, a slight
detour will occur. In some out of the way place, the driver,
along with his accomplices, will either unload the cargo into
a waiting tractor trailer, or give up the tractor trailer itself.
To make it appear realistic, the driver may even be tied up
or assaulted. The driver will then continue on his merry way
avoiding any law enforcement inspection stops or weight
stations. Once the driver feels his accomplices are safe and
secure, he will contact the local law enforcement agency
and report the crime.
The same scheme could be used on shorter runs. We
have both worked on numerous cases where, of all things,
seafood trucks have been hijacked. New Jersey has a sub-
stantial number of seafood restaurants, co-ops and fish mar-
kets. Seafood is very expensive and practically nontrace-
able. We all know a fish is a fish and has no vehicle
registration numbers, so tracing these edible delights is im-
possible. Just about all the seafood-truck hijackings we have
worked on, even though it wasn't always proven, seemed to
have had an insider. When we talk about seafood trucks,
we're talking about medium-sized, refrigerated panel
trucks.
Less than semi-size trucks are usually hijacked at truck
stops. A gunman will direct the driver to a semi-secluded
area where the transfer is made. Waiting in this area is
a truck similar in size to the hijacked one. A number of
accomplices will be standing by and, in just about all the
ones we have worked on, these accomplices will be wearing
some type of ski mask or other face covering to prevent
recognition. All will be wearing gloves, not only to not leave
any fingerprints, but to aid in carrying the heavy crates.
Once the transfer is made, the driver of the hijacked vehicle
will be made to walk back to the road or be tied up and left
to be discovered. The only problem with tying the driver
is the criminals must make certain that the victim will be
discovered quickly before the victim is injured or dies from
exposure to the elements.
Trucks containing merchandise are sometimes parked
on city streets or in fenced-in parking lots. These trucks
usually have just a padlock, which can easily be cut with a
pair of bolt cutters. Local street gangs find this easy prey;
they either climb over or cut through the fence, go to either
the rear or side door and cut the padlock to gain entry.
Once inside, a quick survey will be conducted, and items
are removed. They seldom take all the cargo, usually just
what they can carry.
Another technique for truck hijacking occurs when a
trucker pulls into a truck stop for some food and fuel. While
at the truck stop, the truck driver will meet a very friendly
lady who will persuade him to give her a ride down the road.
Once on their way, the lady brandishes a weapon and forces
the driver to a location where her accomplices are waiting
to receive the merchandise.
Hew Police Capture Hijackers
There are common methods the police use to link hi-
jackers to the crime:
1. Sideview mirrors, rearview mirrors, window, cab door
ledges and handles, side and rear doors, are the most
likely places where hijackers leave fingerprints. This is
one of the reasons that some hijackers wear gloves.
Another reason is to avoid drawing attention to them-
selves, as many truck drivers wear leather gloves.
2. Any dirt left inside the truck cab such as soil on the
clutch peddle can be linked to shoes, which may be
found later by the police. As you know, dirt and soil
from a particular area can be positively linked to the
same type of soil when it is discovered inside the treads
of the criminal's shoes.
3. Anything that may be partially on the hijacker and par-
tially left in the cab, such as matchbooks, will not be
left behind by the professional hijacker.
4. Shoe and heel prints. Of course some hijackers may
be aware that cartons found in the body of the truck
will have to be stepped on and climbed over. Addition-
ally, in the haste of unloading and ripping open cartons
to reveal merchandise and reload it, many times heel
and shoe prints will be left on cartons. The experi-
enced hijacker will destroy these cartons at a different
site or burn the trailer with the cartons on site after
the load is transferred.
5. The distance traveled. By estimating the distance in
which the truck has traveled, clues can be obtained by
detectives in regard to the neighborhood of the drop.
The odometer reading can be taken and compared to
 the mileage recorded when the tank was last filled with
gas. The amount of gasoline in the truck is a good
indication of the upper limit of the radius of the opera-
tion. Some experienced hijackers have been known to
drain the tank completely of gasoline, which is very
easy to do simply by using a hose as a syphon. Some-
times hijackers will disembowel the internal compo-
nents of an odometer to make the actual mileage trav-
eled impossible to detect.
6. The top of the cab. The New York City Safe, Loft and
Truck Squad initiated an operational procedure many
years ago to paint the top of the cab with numbers. In
case the truck was hijacked it could be easily observed
by helicopters. Of course the top of the cab is usually
huge and the numbers are painted as large as possible.
When we are dealing with hijackings that are well-
planned and well-organized, the fingerman will have
all of the information of the truck, so the hijackers
come prepared with paint to match the top of the cab.
7. Informants. Criminals know as well as the police that
warehouse employees, former criminals, gas station at-
tendants, and self-service or road service people are
frequently interviewed to determine if they can ascer-
tain the location and descriptions of people that partic-
ipated in the hijacking.

Skyjacking
Skyjacking is the most dramatic and highly visible form of
terrorism even though it is not the most frequently em-
ployed. Skyjacking illustrates perfectly all of the elements
of terrorist crimes and so is perhaps the most useful of ex-
amples. It is also the form of terrorism that presents the
most personal risk to American citizens.
Approximately thirty years have passed since skyjack-
ing became a familiar word to the American public. Today
the crime remains the same but the stakes are far higher,
for skyjacking is a weapon of terror turned against America.
It threatens not only those who might find themselves on
a hostage plane, but all of us who are concerned with the
future of our nation.
The Sky Marshal Program was proposed by President
Nixon in October 1970 and was one part of the United
States government's response to the threat of skyjacking in
general and to Palestinian skyjackings in particular. The
other part of this deterrence program was the widespread
installation of metal detectors in airports and the introduc-
tion of passenger and baggage searches. Congress appro-
priated the funds and the airlines budgeted hundreds of
thousands of dollars to support the program.
You wouldn't exactly call the Sky Marshals' job an en-
viable one. Presumably the attractions of the job include
travel to exotic and faraway places, independent work free
from supervision, and carrying a gun legally. The dangers
of the job outweigh these benefits, however.
Today's skyjacker does not fit into any one mold or
physical description. Skyjacking is a violent means of getting
a free ride and gratifying a need at the expense of other
people. Of course the skyjacker is seldom a thief, however,
he may be a malcontent, a dropout from everyday life, a
political fanatic, a rebel with or without a cause, or an emo-
tional disaster; he may be literate or illiterate, college-edu-
cated or have just barely finished the third grade. He may
have long hair or a crewcut. He may wear expensive suits
or cheap ones. He may be a cool, intellectual professional
or a whimpering coward. Either way, there is no single pat-
tern to skyjackings or skyjackers.
Some skyjack cases bear close relationships to others
while others are unique. In the United States, the Federal
Aviation Administration, which regulates the airlines, have
psychologists who have been trying to develop a profile of
skyjackers for years. It is they who first conducted interviews
with what we might call "deactivated" skyjackers those
who failed or who returned home after discovering that
there was no haven for them at the end of the line. They
also interviewed families of skyjackers who did not return.
It was on the basis of this extensive research that the behav-
ioral profile of a skyjacker was devised. However, this pro-
file has beencriticizedfor a number of reasons, among them
that it is too broad and based only on American skyjackers
and does not have universal applications.
Why Skyjack?
Why of all things would you want to grab an airplane?
Psychologists have offered different reasons about symbol-
ism and flight and the power of commandeering but to us
there is one basic reason: Because the plane happens to be
there. Skyjacking is one of the current forms of protest.
It is our opinion that skyjackers fall into five, sometimes
overlapping, categories: criminals on the run; individuals
with personal or political reasons; people or groups with
organized political motivations; emotional disaster cases;
losers and misfits.
Now, based on these groupings let's take a closer look
at the types of skyjackers and how they operate.
Categories off Skyjackers
It has been said that skyjacking has evolved during the
last fifty years into the following divisions:
1. Escaping refugees, 1947-1952, 1958-1972, 1980s
2. Transportation, 1961-1994
3. The mentally unbalanced, 1961-1994
4. Political terrorists, 1968-1988
5. Escaping criminals, 1971-1973
6. Extortion, 1971-1973, 1975-1977
7. Religious fundamentalists, 1983-1988
8. Bomb saboteurs, 1984-1994
Escaping Refugees. The escaping refugee skyjacker will
seize an aircraft to flee from an oppressive political regime.
Under international law, certain immunities or exemptions
for foreign aircraft and its occupants entering in distress are
recognized. In a majority of these cases, a degree of immu-
nity has been granted to aircraft including those arriving
under the control of skyjackers. Political asylum has been
given to skyjackers trying to escape from countries whose
governments deny or disregard human rights and who do
not permit their citizens to leave the country lawfully. This
type of skyjacker is usually a desperate and ruthless person
and will stop at nothing to get to freedom.
Transportation. Unlike political refugees, this type of sky-
jacker uses the aircraft simply as a convenient means of
traveling without cost or the legal formalities of entering
and departing countries. The majority of these cases involve
Castro's supporters in Colombia, Venezuela, and the
United States, since no regularly scheduled commercial air
service operates between these counties, and Cuba is one
of the easiest countries to divert an aircraft to unlawfully.
This category also includes persons who cannot afford the
airfare so they skyjack the plane! This type of skyjacker flew
mostly between 1961-1972, but is still a possibility, especially
in today's tough economy.
The Mentally Unbalanced Person. This type of skyjacker
will use any method to attract attention. They can prove that
they can be an effective human being by commandeering
airplanes, or so they believe. The skyjacker also feels that
he can start anew by gaining fame and glory. In short, this
type of person is plagued by mental, emotional and social
problems and seeks wide publicity to offset personal failures
in life.
Political Terrorists. These criminals skyjack planes or sab-
otage them in the air, but they have also attacked airports
and used any form of disruption or hostage-taking that
would enable them to put the pressure on governments.
This type of air piracy for protest is often used for political
blackmail. Perhaps the most widely known are the actions
of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but
other groups have skyjacked including the Black Panthers,
the Japanese Red Army, the Croatians, the Armenians and
Sikhs. This type of skyjacker will usually use either implied
or actual bombs to threaten those on board the plane.
Escaping Criminals. These persons and others with crimi-
nal backgrounds use skyjacking to escape trial or prosecu-
tion. Also included in this group are criminals being trans-
ported from one area to another within the United Slates
who hope to escape and avoid their current sentences.
Extortion. In recent years, skyjacking attempts for profit
have become common. On numerous occasions they have
included the robbery of individual passengers as well as ran-
som demands to insure the safety of the airplane passengers
and crew. They can be categorized as Jesse James skyjack-
ings. In 1972 there was one seventeen-week period in which
there was a skyjacking every single Friday. The last day of
the work week became known as "Skyjack Friday." It took
a great deal of effort and severe prison sentences to bring
this category of skyjacking under control. This type of sky-
jacker is not considered to be as dangerous or as deadly.
Religious Fundamentalists. In 1982, skyjacking of air-
craft by Islamic Fundamentalists began. During the next
two years, seven skyjackings were engineered by the Shiite
Muslims in Lebanon. There were also numerous skyjackings
to and from Iran during the civil war between the religious
and secular forces of that country. These type of skyjackers
are ready to die for their cause and innocent Western pas-
sengers are of no particular concern to them. This type of
skyjacker is considered one of the most dangerous.
Bomb Saboteurs. Bomb saboteurs are new and deadly to
air piracy. The saboteur is a clever technician who plays the
role of the hidden brain behind some of the most devasta-
ting skyjack schemes and is never found at the scene of the
crime. From his concealed headquarters, whether it be his
living room or his place of business, the saboteur sends le-
thal weapons of destruction onto planes full of passengers.
Sometimes these deadly instruments are carried by their
own people, but more often they are placed in the luggage
of a passenger who boards the plane unaware. The advent
of plastic explosives and their use against airplanes has
caught airplane security by surprise, giving the bomb sabo-
teur an enormous advantage. He is an evil genius who is
challenging air security as never before. The most recent
type of skyjacking involving this type of criminal was Pan
Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Vessels a n d A i r c r a f t s
Pleasure boats are nice toys that many wish they could have.
Sometimes, people purchase them even when they can't af-
ford a boat. Eventually, payments become delinquent and
they have to get rid of it. So, what do they do? They can
hire someone to steal it, take it to a marina, and send it to
a boat chop shop. All usable parts are removed and the rest
is either set on fire or sunk.
If the vessel is a fast cigarette boat, drug smugglers
may steal the boat to meet a mother ship out at sea, and
then, much like bootleggers, bring the cargo back to shore.
Because these boats are only used one time, they are usually
damaged by hot wiring and then run ashore. Hot wiring is
a way of diverting the ignition switch by cutting and connect-
ing the ignition wires, thus, no need for a key. It is not
uncommon at the end of the job to torch the boat in an
attempt to hide any evidence that may be left behind.
Boats are also stolen for export to other countries.
They may be taken from their docks, or more commonly
with bigger vessels, they are forcibly boarded while under
way at sea. Once aboard, the pirates either kill or put the
crew out to sea in emergency life boats.
Aircrafts are stolen either for parts (removed at air-
craft chop shops) or to be used to transport narcotics from
Central and South America into the United States. An in-
sider at an airport turns over the keys for the aircraft or the
aircraft is hijacked. Because of the need for secrecy, the
pilots are usually killed.
Because of the Federal RICO statute, the vehicles
used in a commission of a crime are forfeited to the govern-
ment. It is much easier and less costly to steal vehicles, ves-
sels and aircrafts to be used in the transportation of illegal
contraband.
A con artist's greatest feat is to remove money from your
pocket and place it into his without putting a scratch on you
or threatening physical violence. It is a saying among police
detectives that any punk can grab a gun and rob you, but it
takes a special, smart, cunning and sophisticated person to
be a good con artist.

Salesmen of F r a u d
When you write about con artists, remember one thing:
They are very flamboyant characters. They are salesmen
whose product is fraud. Being defined as a nonviolent
crime, swindling involves elements of intentional deceit,
concealment, corruption, and misrepresentation to gain the
property of another, and it is facilitated by the willing coop-
eration of unaware or unknowing victims. Because of this
trickery, the victim is often silent. Either the victim does
not realize that a fraud has been perpetrated, or he is un-
willing to report it for fear of being branded a sucker by his
friends or the police. In New York City, the con artist capi-
tal of the world, the police department groups this type of
crime under "crimes against persons."
Con artists are motivated by one thing: money, money
and more money! To truly appreciate a con artist, you must
watch him in action. When you take the time to observe a
con artist, it is almost a shame to see the energy and intelli-
gence expended in fraud. Since con artists are flamboyant,
you might portray them as eccentric, outgoing and overzea-
lous. In the pecking order of criminals, they are slightly
above the sediment, because they actually use their intelli-
gence, rather than brute force, to steal.
Take for instance Frank Abagnale, who was one of the
most successful con artists in the history of the United
States. For five years Mr. Abagnale worked as a pilot with
Pan American Airlines and worked himself up through the
cockpit from flight engineer to captain, all with a simple
Pan Am identification card. Although he was a high school
drop out, Abagnale passed the bar exam on his third try,
and with a false Harvard Law Transcript practiced law in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He also became a pediatrics con-
sultant at a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, after reading only
a handful of medical books and producing a false degree
from Columbia University in New York City. He was also
a Professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University. In
all these places Abagnale picked up the jargon of the trade,
discovered the perks of each job, and bilked company after
company of either cash or free business expenses.
Quick Change/Short Change Artists
These con artists do a flimflam with money, and only
need a twenty dollar bill and a one dollar bill to make quick
cash, so they are in business very quickly. Often times they
only need to go to a young or inexperienced cashier in a
store that is so busy the cashier is only more willing to get
rid of a difficult customer as soon as possible.
 Restaurants are very good marks for these types of con
artists. This is a complicated scheme for those of us who
don't have natural criminal tendencies, so here's a break-
down of how it works:
1. The con artist enters a restaurant and purchases a
small item such as a cup of coffee, so the entire check
is less than one dollar. He drinks his coffee, and check
in hand, heads for the cashier.
2. He produces a twenty dollar bill for payment to the
cashier. As soon as he hands the cashier the money,
he begins to talk to the cashier about something that
is good enough to interest her: the news of the day, a
local event, or something personal such as her hair,
lipstick or figure. Remember, con artists are really
actors, so he must be debonairsomeone a female
clerk wouldn't mind taking compliments from.
3. The cashier places the twenty dollar bill in the register
while trying to count and pay attention to the cus-
tomer. She lays the change from the twenty on the
counter. The con artist will pick up the small change
but not touch the paper money. At the same time he
will ask for another item such as a pack of cigarettes.
4. While the cashier reaches for the cigarettes, he re-
moves a one dollar bill from his pocket. As he pays the
cashier the exact change for the cigarettes, he holds
up the one dollar bill and says to her, "Wow, that's
unbelievable, here I had a dollar bill in my pocket all
the time and I didn't know it."
5. The con will keep this dollar bill in sight in one hand,
while reaching with the same hand for the nineteen
dollars change on the counter from his original pur-
chase. But as his hand approaches the money he folds
up the one dollar bill with a swift motion and palms it.
At the same time, with another single move, he folds
up the ten dollar bill in such a way that it is hidden
with the remaining nine one dollar bills (or five and
four ones).
 6. All the time, the con man is asking the cashier another
question about something trivial and looking her
straight in the eye. He then holds the nineteen dollars
in plain sight, with the ten dollar bill secreted within
the other nine dollars. The cashier, if she thinks of it
at all, thinks that he has placed the single dollar bill
he "discovered" in his pocket with the money still in
his hand.
7. Since change is always in demand, he asks if she would
like to give him a ten dollar bill for the ten ones. He
hands her the pile with one hand and takes her ten
dollar bill with the other. He promptly pockets the ten
dollars and starts for the door.
8. Usually, the con man will pause to light a cigarette,
giving the cashier time to discover that she has nine-
teen dollars instead of ten one dollar bills. He stalls
until she tells him of the mistake, or, in the event the
cashier overlooks the mistake or decides to pocket the
extra nine dollars herself, he returns as though he has
suddenly discovered the discrepancy. If the cashier
calls him back (and most will), she will show him the
nineteen dollars and tell him that he has short-
changed himself. The con man will thank her profusely
for her honesty and combine it with the other compli-
ments about her face or figure.
9. But wait, here comes the most important part of the
con. The con man will then bring forth the single dollar
bill that he had palmed and toss it down with the other
nineteen dollars, suggesting once again to the cashier
that she may need the change and asking her for a
twenty dollar bill in return.
So, for his twenty-one dollars and five minutes, the con art-
ist walks out of the restaurant with thirty-one dollars! Ambi-
tious con artists register as many as twenty or thirty scores
a day. Some scores have been known to occur twice in the
same place on the same day, because the shortages are very
seldom noticed until the count is made at the close of the
day's business when the register is counted out.
 These swindles are not always done by men; several
women have become very efficient working shops where
young men handle the cash registers. You guessed it, the
womanly sex appeal added to the talk leaves the young cash-
ier boys with nothing but memories.
Another short change scam is the envelope switch,
which is very easy. The con artist enters a store and offers
a handful of bills and small change for a twenty dollar bill.
The cashier, only too happy to get small bills and change,
will do it. The con artist takes from her pocket a stamped,
addressed envelope and says to the cashier, "This is so I
can send the twenty dollar bill to my mother for her birth-
day." After receiving the twenty dollar bill, and while the
clerk is counting the money, she puts the bill in the enve-
lope, seals it and returns the envelope quickly to her pocket.
But the con artist is very shrewd, she has short-changed the
cashier one dollar, and the cashier, thinking that he is on
to her, finds it. The cashier tells the con artist that she is
short one dollar. The con artist pretends to be flustered and
very embarrassed. She says that she will have to go home
or back to the office or out to her car or whatever and get
the additional one dollar. She takes back the original bills
and change and gives the clerk an envelope, in which the
clerk thinks the twenty dollar bill has been deposited, and
tells him to keep that in the register until she returns with
the one dollar that she owes him. It may be hours before
the clerk opens the envelope and discovers that the con
artist has left an envelope with a blank piece of paper inside.
The Shell Game
No one knows exactly when the shell game was intro-
duced to the American public but it has probably been
played for hundreds of years. It was a popular pastime
among the 49ers in California when they were digging for
gold. By the turn of the century it had returned to the cities
and was causing the police of Chicago so much trouble that
they printed descriptions of the game in the newspapers to
warn the public. But this only increased the shell men, or
nut men as the press called them, and didn't discourage the
suckers from the rural parts of America, who never read
the big city newspapers anyway.
The way con artists operate the shell game is very sim-
ple. Three half shells of a walnut, a rubber pea, two milk
crates, and a small table or even a large piece of cardboard
complete the con artists's outfit. However, at least one
booster (or shill) is essential to the success of the swindle.
The shell game is played as follows:
1. The operator of the con game hides the pea under one
walnut shell. Then, he moves the shells around the
table and bets that no one can tell which shell the pea
is under. The booster (or shill), who dresses differently
than the con artist, is the first one up to play the game.
It is very important that the con artist running the
game looks slightly less affluent than the people in the
area and that the booster dresses almost exactly like
the people in the area.
2. The booster will come up to the game, and the con
operator, with ease and carelessness (which only ap-
pears to be carelessness), allows the pea to slide slowly
underneath one of the shells. This motion is seen by
the onlookers. The booster makes a bet and, of course,
wins, so the true victim is drawn into the game.
3. The operator appears to handle the shells more care-
lessly than before. He allows the pea to remain for an
instant under the edge of one of the shells. The victim
sees this and imagines that he has a sure thing. He
makes his bet and picks up the shell only to find it
empty. The shell operator, skilled in handling the pea,
causes it to pass under the shell picked up by the victim
and inside the next shell. This motion is too quick for
detection.
Some of the old-time shell game operators were real artists
in the truest sense of the word. Not only were their fingers
trained to a degree of deftness rarely seen today, but their
shtick or spiel was so hypnotic in its effect on suckers that,
had they gone on stage with these talents, many of them
would have earned far more fame and more fortune than
they did as con artists and sidewalk swindlers.
The key to success in this game is to have crowds,
crowds, crowds, because they have money, money, money.
On the streets of New York at any given time you can see
thousands of these shell game operators working the streets
and sidewalks. What makes this game so enticing to tourists
and people who do not know about it is the fact that crowds
are lured into it. The operator counts on the crowds and
their noise.
The booster will scream exuberantly that he has won
ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred dollars, thereby attracting a
crowd. As we all know, people like to know what's going on
to attract a crowd. So, what do we do? We go to the head
of the crowd to see what is going on, see the money that is
being exchanged, see how easy it is to win (at least for the
booster), and offer to give it a shot. The suckers get caught
up in the fast pace and large crowds involved in these games.
The police frequently are asked by local merchants
to move these con artists along, as they create such crowd
problems that regular customers can't enter a store. When
the police are seen coming down the block, either with their
sweep vans or on foot patrol, the shell game operator simply
packs up his milk crates, stuffs his cardboard box into one
of the milk crates, drops his lucky pea into his pocket and
moves on. Usually, his shop is set up another thirty feet
down the block.
Three Card Monte
Three Card Monte may not be as old as the shell game
but it is every bit as popular. You encounter it most often
today among people waiting for buses, trains and planes.
Wherever people have time to kill, a Three Card Monte
operator finds enough suckers to make the time profitable
for her. This game is similar to the shell game, the only
difference being three playing cards instead of walnut shells
and a pea.
For instance, if three aces are used hearts, spades
and clubsthey are shuffled around the table in the same
manner as the shells and the operator invites the onlookers
to pick out the ace of clubs. If she operates with a shill (or
booster), she will allow the shill to win a few bets to gain
the confidence of the crowd. Sometimes the confederate is
given an opportunity to mark the cards so that everybody
but the operator knows which one is marked.
After the shill and some of the outsiders win a few bets
on the marked card someone is induced to put up a really
big bet. But when the sucker turns up the marked card it is
not the ace of clubs but the ace of spades. Obviously this is
a good example of palming and the game should really be
called Four Card Monte. Certainly, four cards are involved
though the sucker doesn't know it.
Three Card Monte has many variations, but the best
that we have ever seen was worked by a sole operator who
used to hang around Penn Station in New York City. He
used no marked cards, no shills and he paid off when he
lost; after all, he had a two to one advantage so he could
plan on winning two-thirds of the time. But to make doubly
sure he won, he had a way of shuffling the cards flat on the
table that confused anybody who tried to keep his eye on
the right card.
Bank Con Artists
Not many years ago, and within the memory of many
people, a person who wanted to open a checking account
was required to furnish references and one of them was
expected to be some type of bank reference. Things are
different today. Bankers, pressured by competition and sta-
tistics, open checking accounts without any investigation of
the applicant or verification of his or her claims to previous
banking and business connections. The pressure of compe-
tition is obvious; there are almost as many banks as there
are drugstores, more banks than bookstores, and their ad-
vertising has changed from being institutional to being mod-
ern and slick. They spend more money advertising for new
accounts than they lose on bad ones. What they don't take
into consideration is that their advertising invites swindlers.
There is an old saying among bank management:
"Strangers are not always crooks, but crooks are usually
strangers." The most common type of bank swindle by con
artists is the split deposit con. Many times a con will open an
account under a fictitious name and place a small amount of
money in the account, usually fifty to a hundred dollars.
After the account is opened, they receive various paperwork
and documentation. Frequently, the con will visit the bank
making small deposits of ten or fifteen dollars or depositing
a check for fifty dollars and asking for twenty dollars cash
back. This is to build up the confidence of the people in the
bank so that he or she is easily recognized as being a bank
customer.
One of Joe's investigations involved a woman, who
through a split deposit transaction, deposited a check at her
bank for $7,550. She deposited $4,050 to her account and
asked for cash back in the amount of $3,500. At another
bank she obtained $3,650 cash in a similar transaction. The
following Monday, she cashed checks on her accounts for
$1,500 at each bank. The total take for one week was
$10,150, which is not too bad when you consider that most
people do not make that in six months.
The split deposit scam is very easy to do because it
plays on the confidence of the teller. When a teller sees that
a person is depositing a check for around seven thousand
dollars into an account and is only asking for a portion back,
they presume the check will be good. But, the con artist
knows the check is worthless and that the bank will discover
this at the end of the day when they do their tally. The key
to this con is the check must not be drawn on the bank being
swindled.
Many smart con artists know that a bank manager has
to initial a check for a large amount before it can be cashed.
What they do is scope out the bank to learn the manager's
name and, therefore, his initials. They forge the manager's
initials on the check and then present the check to the teller
at the busiest time of the day. The teller usually will cash
the check without question.
The con artist's success depends on his or her ability
to appear normal. The job of selecting surnames for use in
a bank scam is also a serious undertaking. The names picked
should usually fit the racial characteristics of the con artist.
Some names repeatedly used in bank scams are Daley, Fer-
guson, Ford, Hart, Marlowe, Martin, Mansfield, Mellon,
Payne, Robinson, Sheppard, Taylor and Wilson. When a
banker meets a person using a familiar surname by right or
by choice he is inclined to be more than usually pleased to
serve him. In banking, to be more than usually pleased
means to freely accommodate the person with any services
needed. These names appear to have an actual psychologi-
cal effect upon those who see or use them.
Swindlers not blessed with an honest face can make
good use of a uniform. The uniform might be that of an
armed service, a civic organization or commercial enter-
prise. For several years banks in our area have been plagued
by a person who masquerades as a filling station employee
while negotiating worthless checks. By disguising himself in
an oil-stained uniform, generally bearing a major oil com-
pany's insignia, he leads bank tellers to believe that he is
employed locally and has been sent to the bank simply to
cash his employer's checks. These are from a number of
banks all bearing different signatures and all made out to
the station that he pretends to represent. His average take
at each bank was five hundred to seven hundred and fifty
dollars.
Several checks stolen from a steel company were
cashed at various stores by con artists in work clothes and
steel helmets. In another case, checks stolen from a nursing
home were cashed by a woman in an immaculate nurse's
uniform.
But the key to these types of bank swindles is that the
con artists must make themselves familiar to the people
employed by the bank, either by frequently walking in and
making minor deposits or by going into the bank with an
appearance, name and uniform so that they appear to be
nothing other than the average Joe simply trying to deposit
a paycheck and take a little bit home for his week's wages.
The Free Inspection Con
Whatever your profession or business, the free inspec-
tion con is the simplest come-on for a profitable fraud. TV
repairmen, auto mechanics, heating and air conditioning
engineers, insect and rodent exterminators make the offer
for a free inspection by advertising or by door-to-door can-
vassing. Once inside the TV set, under the automobile or
under the house, the most cursory examination will disclose
numerous components that need repair or replacing.
If a homeowner has been dumb enough to mail a post-
age-free return postcard on which he has indicated an inter-
est in having, let's say, his furnace inspected, a smart opera-
tor may knock on his door and intimate that he represents
a city government agency or utility company and request
permission to inspect the home heating plant. The typical
procedure of the furnace repair con is to gain access to the
heating plant by some ruse and then take it apart and make
it so that it will not be operable. At that point the con can
refuse to assemble the parts into working condition on the
grounds that the furnace is in immediate danger of causing
a fire or explosion or of giving off deadly gas fumes.
Dead Man's Curse Con
Sad but true, the obituary columns present another
opportunity for con artists. If you or I happen to be one of
those listed in the obituary, we do not have to worry about
being victimized, do we? The obituary columns of newspa-
pers provide endless sucker lists for a variety of swindles.
Packages of worthless merchandise "ordered by the de-
ceased" are delivered COD to the next of kin. Or the be-
reaved are notified that the deceased had an insurance pol-
icy with one premium still unpaid. "Just pay the $35
premium and the insurance check will be sent to you by
return mail," states the con artist, but the money never is
because the policy never was.
Heir hunters are still around too. People with fairly
common surnames get letters every day telling them about
the death in some distant city of a relative who left a sizable
estate. The suckers are asked to identify themselves and
send ten or fifteen dollars as a filing fee, "So that you can
be put on the list to be paid." The filing fee goes directly
into the con artist's pockets.
The Bank Examiner Fraud
The bank examiner fraud is a swindle based on the
hidden desire of many people to serve as a secret agent for
the police. Victims are located through telephone books or
through surveys. The first telephone call to the victim is
double-talk alleging that there is some problem with their
account at the local bank. The next call is allegedly from
an officer of the bank. The spiel is that one of the bank's
employees has been tampering with the accounts of deposi-
tors, and they want to catch him, but they need the victim's
help to do so.
Cooperative victims are then informed that they
should simply go to the bank, withdraw a specific sum, usu-
ally just short of the victim's total deposited funds and bring
it home. The victim is assured that the withdrawal will be
secretly watched by an armed agent who will follow the vic-
tim home to make certain the money is safe.
A few minutes after arrival at home with the money,
the victim is visited by the con artist posing as the armed
agent. After some more double-talk, the swindler counts
the victim's money, gives her a signed deposit slip and takes
the money. Hours, days and even weeks later the victim
finds out the name on the deposit slip is fictitious, the bank
knows nothing of this employee, and the money given to
the swindler is a total loss.
The Ponzi Scheme
The Ponzi scheme or kiting is the basis of all invest-
ment frauds, security frauds or get-rich-quick schemes. In
a Ponzi schemenamed after Charles Ponzi, the American
legend who in December 1919 started this scamthe swin-
dler uses money invested by new victims to pay a high inter-
est on the investments of earlier victims. The money from
the earlier victims was appropriated for the operator's own
use rather than investing it as claimed in the spiel. A Ponzi
scheme collapses when the swindler runs out of victims.
The most common version of a Ponzi scheme are chain
letters and pyramid sales schemes, but the swindle can take
an infinite variety of subtler forms. Virtually any investment
vehicle can start out legitimately and turn into a variation
on Ponzi's original.
In recent years investigations have revealed that con
artists have worked Ponzi operations in everything from off-
shore mutual and private hedge funds to real estate com-
modities contracts and gold coins. Hundreds of small invest-
ors around New York City were recently stung by a Los
Angeles crook who sold them some $9 million worth of 270-
day notes presumably invested in real estate and guarantee-
ing returns of 20 to 30 percent interest. Instead, the $9 mil-
lion vanished.
A very juicy scandal uncovered within recent memory
was the Home Stakes Production Company swindle. Home
Stakes, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, purported to be an oil
drilling company run by an Oklahoma lawyer named Robert
S. Trippet. Home Stakes sold tax shelter partnerships to
hundreds of wealthy investors eager to avoid paying taxes.
To disguise the complete lack of oil drilling operations,
Trippet and his cronies fooled investors with a variety of
maneuvers, even going so far as to paint irrigation pipes
orange to make a California vegetable farm look like an
operating oil field. When the company went bankrupt in
1973, unsuspecting investors lost $100 million or more. The
list of investors was astounding and included some of the
biggest names in United States industry, finance, law and
show business. Some of the show business crowd victimized
were Barbra Streisand, Liza Minelli, Walter Matthau, Can-
dice Bergen, Bob Dylan, Mia Farrow, Barbara Walters and
the late Jack Benny. Andy Williams alone was sunk for
$538,000. So, those who get taken by a Ponzi racket have
one consolation: They can always boast that they are in the
same league with the nation's financial elite.
Our experience has shown that these Ponzi swindlers
proliferate in cyclical patterns throughout history and very
often take place when inflation and unemployment are very
high. There is never a shortage of suckers ready to take a
tumble. What sets Ponzi schemes apart from other more
intricate swindles is this: The money the investors put up
isn't invested in anything, and the profits are paid out of new
money from subsequent investors. Eventually there aren't
enough newcomers to keep this snowball going, and the
game collapses.
No one knows if a successful Ponzi operator has ever
found a way to close-out his swindle without it collapsing.
When a Ponzi scheme collapses all of the latecomers lose.
Only early investors can win, but many of them lose, too,
because they reinvest with the expectation of making larger
and larger gains. They become trapped by their own greed.
To profit from a Ponzi fraud it's not enough to be the first
one in; you have to be the first one out as well.
Bunko Games
The pigeon drop or pocketbook drop is the street
bunko game that requires the minimum number of props:
a pocketbook or an envelope and a sizable amount of cash.
The pigeon is the victim and no more than two or three
swindlers participate in the crime.
The game begins in the presence of the potential vic-
tim, when one of the swindlers apparently finds a pocket-
book or envelope filled with money, usually from $500 to
$2,500. The approach to the victim is disarming, combining
happiness in finding the money along with the question,
"What do I do now?" As the victim starts to discuss the
swindler's apparent good fortune, a second swindler shows
up. Assuming the roll of a stranger who just happens to
witness the find and wants to be part of it, the second swin-
dler joins in the spiel that makes the victim a partner in a
plan to hold the money until the origin of the cash can be
determined.
Since this will take time, the two swindlers team up to
convince the sucker that he should hold the funds, but to
assure them of the victim's good faith, they ask him to show
cash equal to the amount found or close to it. Faced with
the possible loss of one-third of the money, the gullible vic-
tim goes to a bank, gets the cash and shows it to the swin-
dlers. They go through the motions of counting it, advising
the victim of their satisfaction. They bundle the found
money with the victim's cash, hand it to him, and arrange
to meet again the next day.
Sometime after this parting, the natural curiosity of
the victim leads to an examination of the secret bundle of
money. It turns out to be newspapers or regular plain paper
cut to money size. The swindlers switched the bundle just
before they parted from the victim.

Swindles Against the Elderly

On the bottom of any detective's list of social miscreants
would be the con man who impersonates a Social Security
employee to gain access to an elderly person's home and
confidence. Once this relationship is established there are
a variety of con games used by these individuals. Here are
a few along with actual case histories from the files of the
Social Security Administration.
We once investigated two con men who contacted So-
cial Security recipients, two elderly females, aged eighty-six
and eighty-four, and told them that there had been overpay-
ment. The eighty-six-year-old woman turned over $7,050 to
the impersonators. The eighty-four-year-old told them she
didn't have the $1,628 demanded, but that she could have
it for them the next day. She then called the Social Security
Office. This matter was reported to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Another type of con, frequently targeted toward el-
derly men, are pills and devices to enhance sex and adver-
tised in senior citizen magazines or by direct mail. It is quite
easy to purchase mailing lists, which go into great demo-
graphic detail in a market area. For instance, if a person
wanted to target males over age sixty who reside in a certain
location, they would simply contact a mailing label company
who would ship them thousands of labels compiled accord-
ing to recent research data. Armed with this information,
con artists target these individuals and offer them pills and
juices that they say can make a man, regardless of age, ro-
mantic, young, potent, as virile as the gods. These products
are sold for ten to twenty dollars, but are made of nothing
but pineapple, papaya, peach, grape and apple juice.
Another con involving the elderly is the dance studio
scam. In the most prominent one, the slick con artist preys
on the desire of elderly widows and spinsters for attention
and the emotional satisfaction this brings to an otherwise
lonely existence. Swindling in this area is made possible
through the device of lifetime memberships, whereby a stu-
dio contracts to provide several thousand hours of instruc-
tion to an elderly person who pays in advance. Many victims
that we have met have reported to the Better Business Bu-
reau that they have been bilked out of their life's savings for
a lifetime membership or multiple lifetime memberships. In
one case a dance studio signed a sixty-nine-year-old widow
to eight lifetime memberships entitling her to 3,100 hours
of instruction at a cost of $34,913.00. She was promised
attractive male dancing partners and was assured that the
lessons would make her a gifted dancer so that she could
perform on television.
Another type of swindle is called the lonely hearts
club. What these operators do is try to offer personal intro-
ductions to members of the opposite sex. They do not de-
liver people and charge anywhere from fifty to two hundred
dollars. After responding to a newspaper ad for a match-
maker service for the elderly, the subscriber will call to in-
vestigate, send in his payment, and then wait patiently for
his perfect match to show up. He is told over the telephone
to exercise patience while the vast staff of the club sort out
the right person for the match. In essence, this elderly victim
is contacting one or two people working in a room with
nothing but two phone lines and two chairs!
There are also correspondence clubs that take the ini-
tial deposits and then go much further to receive more funds
from their cons. An elderly gentleman receives delightful
letters from a widow across the country found for him by
the correspondence club. These, of course, are form letters
that are written by the thousands each month by the em-
ployees of the scam. After a few months of writing, the
widow declares her intentions to visit the gentleman. His
interest peaked, he is all set for this visit. However, in transit
to the gentleman's home, she falls seriously "ill" and cables
him for a bundle of money just until she can get to her own
bank and make a withdrawal. The money is sent by the
expectant gentleman and that is the last that is heard of the
nonexistent widow.
Gypsy swindlers and door-to-door confidence men ex-
ploit the elderly to the tune of millions annually through a
variety of schemes. Many of these con artists pose as city
inspectors telling people that their storm sewers need clean-
ing to pass inspection. They will work two hours and charge
a person $1,050. Other times they will insist that they are
roofing inspectors and state that the roof will need painting
and repair. They will go on the roof and work for about
three or four hours and charge $1,685.
In another investigation that we handled, a retired
physician in his eighties gave a representative of an alleged
termite control firm $1,790 for treatment of his home, after
being shown a piece of termite-eaten wood supposedly re-
moved from his basement. Subsequent investigation failed
to establish that there was any termite activity in the home.

A Glossary l o r Con A r t i s t s
Noted below is the compendium of con artist language. Be
sure con artists in your works are flamboyant, extraverted
and expert salesmen. To make them realistic you should
have them use the following terms and know exactly what
they mean:
Big Con A confidence game or trick, usually with an elaborate
set up, that nets the swindler big money.
Boob A victim or dupe.
Booster A shoplifter, also an assistant to the operator of a con
game.
Bunko A confidence game or swindle.
Cannon A pickpocket.
Capper An outside man who works for a gambler, one who
brings in the suckers.
Century A one hundred dollar bill, also called a C-note.
Check Kiting Passing a check whose amount has been fraudu-
lently raised. A check bearing a forged signature or check
without funds to cover it.
Chump A sucker.
Clip Artist A swindler.
Cold Deckel deck of cards dishonestly introduced into a game.
Flush Describes a sucker who has plenty of money.
Front Money Money put up to lead a sucker into a swindle.
Gaff Any method, device or system used by a swindler to trick
a sucker.
Grand A thousand dollars or G-note.
Gyp Artiste swindler.
Haul The swindler's take or profit, also called loot, gravy, cut,
doe or swag.
Hooked To be swindled.
Laying Paper Passing worthless checks.
Layout The swindler's paraphernalia, also called the set up.
Mark prospective or actual victim of a confidence game.
Nut The sum total of expenses.
One Spot A one dollar bill.
Paper Hanger A bad check passer.
Patsy A dupe or victim of a swindle.
Phony Counterfeit money or a package ofpaper with good bills
on the outside.
Pigeon The dupe or victim of a confidence game.
Poke A pocketbook or wallet.
Rap A complaint or criminal charge.
Salesman A swindlers advanceman who makes the first con-
tact with the mark.
Score To pull off a swindle and then the proceeds from the
swindle.
Shill A swindler's assistant who poses as one of the crowd. He
may be permitted to win a short card game to facilitate
bringing in victims.
Short Con A confidence game in which little preparation is
needed and small stakes are involved.
Spieler The person who does most of the talking in a con game.
Steerer A confidence operator who first approaches the in-
tended victim. Also called the salesman.
Sucker From the swindler's standpoint any person not engaged
in some swindling activity. Also called the fall guy, sap,
pigeon, dupe, gull, easy mark, boob, chump, egg, patsy or
customer.
Thimble Rigger A shell game operator.
Touch The victim of a swindle or a sucker.
Trick A swindle. To pull a trick is to swindle.
Trim To swindle, fleece, jip, clip, beat or cheat a sucker.
We all know that the most desirable article to forge is paper
money. But, counterfeiters and forgers do not just deal in
currency. Anything that can be used to make a profit will
be duplicated and sold: artwork, bank checks and stocks
and bonds, even blue jeans and pocketbooks. If there is a
market for an item, you can almost guarantee there will be
someone willing to reproduce it cheaper.
What is counterfeiting? It is defined in criminal codes
as an act of copying or producing a genuine facsimile for the
purpose of unlawfully circulating them for profit. The en-
forcement of federal counterfeiting laws is done mainly by
the U.S. Treasury Department through the Secret Service.

Currencies
The currency most often counterfeited in the U.S. is the
twenty dollar bill. Store clerks will take them with little or
no hesitation; especially when a cashier is confronted with
a line of customers. Today's counterfeiters will not attempt
to fool the unsuspecting cashier with a perfectly manufac-
tured counterfeit bill. Instead, they rely on the clerk's lack
of attention to pass the bogus bills. This is achieved by plac-
ing the counterfeit currency between a number of authentic
bills, and by asking a number of complicated questions so
the checkout line stacks up with angry customers who pre-
occupy the cashier.
Modern Money
We have all seen in the movies the master engraver.
The typical scene is a small, dimly lit room, perhaps tucked
away in a basement or to the rear of a small curio shop in
a seedy part of town. The engraver sits on a stool, hunched
over a small wooden bench table. One light fixture hangs
over the table. His sleeves are rolled up and a visor is on
top of his head shading his eyes from the harsh light. A
tiny razor-sharp chisel is used to precisely and meticulously
carve into a metal plate the image of a one hundred dollar
bill. Once both sides of the bill are complete, the plates are
placed into a press and one at a time these one hundred
dollar bills are reproduced.
This is not the norm today. Small-time hoods duplicate
currency on high-quality color copy machines that cost in
excess of $80,000 each, or computers with laser printers.
Unlike the master engraver, anyone with little or no art
skills can make a high-quality reproduction of U.S. cur-
rency. Counterfeiters use high-tech software programs to
accomplish this. Not all the counterfeit monies produced
today are from professional criminals. School-aged children
use their library copiers to reproduce money to buy items
from their cafeteria vending machines. More gutsy juveniles
will attempt to make purchases at a local convenience store
with photocopied money.
Worth the Paper and Ink
The paper used to make genuine U.S. currency is 100
percent cotton rag that holds a unique textured surface.
This texture can be easily observed and felt when it is han-
died. Small red and blue fibers arc embedded in the paper.
The paper used for currency is very tightly controlled, mak-
ing it almost impossible to obtain. One enterprising coun-
terfeiter, knowing of the tiny red and blue fibers, attempted
to duplicate the paper by carefully gluing tiny bits of red
and blue fiber onto his counterfeit money.
The United States government is now taking steps to
stop the ease of duplicating its currency. Beginning in 1996,
United States currency will contain a number of new secu-
rity characteristics. Some of these characteristics will be
kept secret for security reasons, but basically they are going
to have some of the same features found in currency in
European countries. The currency will contain watermarks
that will only be visible when looked at with lighting behind
the currency itself. This is designed to eliminate the possi-
bility of copying currency with a copy machine, because
these watermarks will not transfer. Another protection
from copiers or high-quality laser printers will be the intro-
duction of microprinting. Microprinting is impossible to re-
produce through photocopying because the tiny characters
blur when photocopied.
The standard red and blue fibers will be placed in dif-
ferent locations that will indicate the denomination of the
currency. The green ink, which is also a tightly controlled
product, will still be used, but this new currency will have
an additional ink that will change colors when viewed at
different angles.

Credit Card Fraud/Counterfeiting

It's actually pretty simple to get credit card numbers. A
search of apartment building dumpsters for sales receipts or
billing account statements will yield a motherlode of infor-
mation. Carbon copies thrown in retail outlet dumpsters is
another method, and, of course, a salesman looking to make
a fast buck is also a good source for charge card numbers.
Credit card information is also easily obtained through
telemarketing scams. Basically, you receive a telephone call
stating that you won an outstanding prize or the vacation
of your dreams. The only problem is that for you to receive
your prize, you first have to satisfy your tax obligation or a
shipping fee for your prize to be delivered. One method
suggested to you is paying with your Visa or MasterCard.
Once the number is obtained, it is then imprinted on a bo-
gus charge card.
These bogus charge cards are either manufactured,
usually in a well-organized and equipped print shop, or sto-
len with inside help from the company of issue. The charge
card can now easily be used for at least thirty days, which
is the usual billing cycle, without threat of apprehension.
Counterfeit losses have generally represented a small
percentage of volume loss for the major bank credit card
companiesVisa and MasterCard International. These
credit card vendors paid the problem scant attention until
the involvement of organized crime and the rising losses.
MasterCard lost $172,000 to counterfeiters in 1979, but $9.3
million in 1983 on a total of $41.8 billion dollars in sales. The
$9.3 million is not tremendous, but the growth is alarming.
According to Visa, 93 percent of U.S. counterfeiting occurs
in twelve states, and card fraud operations appear to coin-
cide with the locations of major, known organized crime
families. It has been determined that 82 percent of all coun-
terfeit and altered card transactions took place in New
York, New Jersey and Florida.
Lost or stolen cards are used first for large purchases
by criminals. Counterfeiting and alterations are usually the
second step for a stolen card. When the issuer finally hot-
lists the account number, counterfeiters recycle their cards
using methods ranging from the crude cutting the num-
bers off and pasting them on another card to the sophisti-
cated$140,000 embossing machines.
Today, there are basically three types of counterfeit
cards being used: Kimble Stolen Plastic, Silkscreen and
Lithographs.
Kimble Stolen Plastic
Kimble cards are the Bank of America cards that were
taken in an armed robbery in 1981; they are named after
the executive who made the cards at Bank of America.
These cards are perfect because they are embossed with
valid names and account numbers, and are difficult to de-
tect as counterfeits because the card is flawless. These cards
can be detected as counterfeit after they are embossed by
the following irregularities:
1. Some will have small square outlines around the letters
or the name. This is because the same embossing pres-
sure was applied on the letters as the numbers.
2. All Kimble stolen cards counterfeited to date have no
star. The Bank of America star has five points, but
counterfeiters are embossing a six-point star that looks
like a daisy flower. Some cards have been recovered
with a dot in place of the star.
The only positive way to tell if the card is a Kimble stolen
card is to photocopy the back with the signature panel (for
the signature record), then scrap off the center with a sharp
knife. If the number 03 781-7-81-682 appears under the
panel, this card is a Kimble counterfeit.
Kimble counterfeit cards will not have any information
recorded on the magnetic stripe on the back of the card.
Valid Bank of America cards will contain the following in-
formation in the magnetic stripe: card number, name of the
cardholder, expiration date, number of valid cards issued,
and the reason for re-issue. Counterfeiters have digital ma-
chinery that can match the magnetic strip to the card.
Silkscreens
Here are some ways to identify counterfeit credit cards
that have been created using silkscreening:
1. They are always on blank white plastic cards.
2. The pin code is very smooth and even looking.
3. The edges of the letters are jagged like sawed teeth.
This can be detected with a magnifying glass.
4. You can feel the paint on the smooth plastic. This is
due to criminals using the wrong type and mixture of
paint. Valid cards are sprayed front and back with
 clear plastic, this gives the card a shiny appearance.
Altered cards will contain air bubbles in the plastic,
which can be detected by scrutinizing the card.
5. The edges of the card are rough because of the way
they were cut. The roughness can be detected with a
magnifying glass. Valid cards are always smoothly cut.
Lithographs
1. They are made on white plastic sheets.
2. Irregularities in the paint texture and color are due to
using the wrong type and mixture of paint. The paint
color is dotted or uneven, which can be detected by
using a magnifying glass.
3. The faintness in the detail of the card is caused by
the wrong amount of heat applied to the plate when
burned. Normally the plate is burned with a 2,000- or
4,000-watt lamp for two to four minutes. Direct sun-
light can also be used to burn the plate, but this is hit
or miss.
4. Cards are sprayed with clear plastic to give it a shiny
appearance. When this is done you can see air bubbles
on the card by carefully scrutinizing the card.
5. When the card is embossed some of the paint will fall
off the numbers and the letters. This happens because
the card was not covered with clear plastic.
Signature Panels
Signature panels can be altered in two ways:
1. By covering the old panel with a false one made of
glued-on paper, adhesive tape, white paint or white
fingernail polish. To detect these alterations one must
examine the panel closely. If the panel has been dam-
aged or is missing this could indicate an altered card.
False panels often show other signs of alteration: pa-
per or tape panels may have edges that can be lifted
off, paint or nail polish panels are easily chipped and
may show brush marks or light erasures. Often the
edges of altered panels are irregular.
 2. A mixture of red wine vinegar and rubbing alcohol,
ninety percent vinegar and ten percent, alcohol, will
erase the signature without damaging the plastic.
To write consistently and accurately concerning credit card
fraud, you must have a suitable definition of terms used by
the industry and criminals in these enterprises:
Credit card A plastic card empowering the holder to buy or
borrow against credit established by the issuer. Funds
spent are charged to the cardholder's account. The card-
holder is then billed at a later date.
Bank credit cards A card issued by a bank offering revolving
extended credit to the cardholder. The cardholder has the
choice to pay in full to save interest charges or to pay a
lesser amount and have interest charged on the outstand-
ing balance. A cash advance can also be obtained, and
interest is charged from the day the cash is received.
Travel and entertainment cards A travel and entertainment
card (commonly referred to as a T&E card) provides
credit between purchase and billing, at which time the
cardholder is expected to settle the account balance. A
charge is also made to the merchant calculated on the
value of sales made with this card. Examples of this type
of card are American Express and Diner's Club.
Retailer cards A retailer card is commonly referred to as an
in-house or in-store card and is issued by or on behalf of
merchants. It is generally used only at the merchant's out-
let. An example of this is a Sears or a J.C. Penney's card.
Gas and oil cards A form of retailer charge card the use of
which is usually restricted to the purchase of gasoline,
diesel fuel oil and accessories.
Debit card A debit card is an instrument ofpayment that can
be used to obtain cash, goods and services and is linked
to the cardholder's bank account. A debit card is different
 from a credit card in that the cardholder's account is
electronically debited at the time of the transaction. There
is no credit. An example of this type of debit card is the
MAC or Plus Cirrus cards, which enable you to make
cash withdrawals at automatic teller machines at banks,
convenience stores or supermarkets.
Altered card Initially a payment device that was manufactured
by an authorized issuer but which was lost or stolen and
re-embossed, re-fabricated or otherwise modified to re-
flect a name, account number, expiration date and/or sig-
nature other than that of the valid cardholder.
Counterfeit cards A payment device that has been printed,
embossed and/or encoded to represent a valid card, but
which is not valid because an issuer did not authorize its
manufacture.
White plastic card A blank, credit card-sized piece of plastic
embossed with a valid cardholder name, account number
and expiration date. This card is to imprint a sales draft
which is presented for payment to the institution that sup-
posedly issued the card. The term white plastic is generic
since the card may be of any color, including blue, white,
gold and red.
Authorization A process by which approval for a transaction
is required when the merchant accepts a card as a means
ofpayment or when a financial institution accepts a card
as a means of payment or of a cash disbursement.
Card recovery bulletin A list of account numbers (first pub-
lished by Visa) that have been blocked from further use;
this bulletin is referred to genetically as the hot card list.
It is used by most major credit card issuers.
Cardholder An individual to whom a credit card has been
issued or one authorized to use such a card.
Interchange The exchange of paper between approved Visa
and MasterCard members.
Fraudulent application instrument containing false card-
holder information upon which an issuer of a payment
device relies for the extension of credit or debit accounts
to a cardholder.
Criminals of credit card fraud usually have certain
qualities about them that should be reflected in your works:
1. The criminal will usually make indiscriminate pur-
chases without regard to size, color, style or price. An
example of this would be a criminal who would go into
a stereo or audio-video store and immediately buy an
expensive stereo system without listening to the speak-
ers, looking at the placement of the woofer and
tweeter or evaluating the power of the amplifier.
Just imagine if you or I were to walk into a store
and decide to spend one or two thousand dollars on a
stereo system. We would usually ask to test a CD or
cassette so we could listen to the different types of
speakers on display. Slowly, we would settle on a few
speakers that sounded good and we would eventually
narrow our choice down to one set. Speakers are typi-
cally the most important part of a person's stereo sys-
tem, and the component they are most selective about.
Unfortunately, many salespeople who work on com-
mission are eager to close a sale and will not question
a person who comes in and quickly orders a large item
without appearing to think about the purchase.
2. The criminal may instead be talkative or will delay a
selection repeatedly until the clerk is upset. The rea-
son for this is to make the clerk rush to close the sale
and get rid of this annoying customer. This rush may
keep the clerk from checking the signature on the sales
slip with the one on the back of the card.
3. The criminal may also pose as a customer who appears
just before quitting time. This is a very common tech-
 nique that criminals use. Often times salespeople work
ten- to fourteen-hour days and the last thing they want
is to hassle with a sale (regardless of the commission)
in the ten minutes before closing time. Both of us have
experience in retail sales, and we know what it is like
to be in a store for fourteen hours and to be trying to
unwind at the end of the day with a cup of coffee or by
taking a peek at the day's newspaper when a customer
rushes in. Of course salespeople figure a late arrival is
not a very serious customer and instead is simply rush-
ing in to pick up a small accessory. The smart criminal
will hurry a clerk at quitting time and thereby cause
the clerk to not be as careful with checking the card.
4. Criminals often purchase large items such as a color
television console and insist on taking the item imme-
diately instead of having it delivered.
5. Criminals refuse alterations on wearing apparel even
though the alterations are included in the selling price.
6. A customer making purchases, leaving the store with
the merchandise and then returning to make addi-
tional purchases may be using a stolen card.
7. Criminals are sometimes customers who do not appear
to be well dressed but who are purchasing expensive
items.
8. A customer who pulls the credit card out of his pocket,
not his wallet should raise suspicion. This is a common
technique that is not usually caught by younger sales-
people. However, the older and more experienced a
salesperson, the more this is a tip off that the card is
actually stolen.

Other Documentation
Money orders, traveler's checks, store coupons, stock and
bond certificates and letters of credit can all be duplicated.
The method is again the theft of an original, which is then
duplicated on a copy machine or a personal computer sys-
tem. Fraudulent stock and bond certificates are often used
to obtain credit or a loan from a bank.
M a r k e t a b l e Goods
You name it, they make it. Whether it is the latest CD,
videotape, or computer software program, it is probably be-
ing pirated somewhere. This could be performed in a small
operation or in a large factory, often in a foreign country.
This process is profitable because no royalties are paid, the
inferior merchandise used is cheap to manufacture, there
is no middleman, and they pay no taxes.
Basically, the item, which could be anything from a
sneaker to a watch, is examined by a manufacturer. The
duplicate will look the same as the originals, but will be
made of the cheapest possible materials.
Forgery
Forgery is the alteration of a written document with the
intent to defraud a person by representing the document as
genuine. The alteration could be signing a blank check or
reproducing the original and representing it as the original.
Literary Forgery
Counterfeiting manuscripts and other printed materi-
als is a profitable business. William H. V. Ireland, who was
taught the engraving business by his father, reproduced sev-
eral Shakespearean pieces of literature. Ireland even wrote
an entire play attributing it to Shakespeare. Eventually, Ire-
land told the world and even demonstrated how he manu-
factured the writings, which included making the inks, pa-
per and Shakespeare's signature.
Most recently, the magazine Stern, which is published
in West Germany, reported having obtained a number of
diaries written by Adolf Hitler. This hoax was discovered
through scientific laboratory analysis of the materials pres-
ent in the diary, and testing by a highly-trained handwriting
expert. The contents of the diary contained misinformation
that was easily refuted by historians.
 The ever-increasing demand for autographs of the fa-
mous, such as movie stars, national heroes and sports fig-
ures, generates high price tags. Autograph forgers will,
through both artistic skill and practice, duplicate the signa-
tures of the famous. When the autograph is from earlier
times, the inks and the writing utensils must match the time
period. Failure to use authentic inks and tools is one of the
main reasons that unskilled forgers meet their demise.
Electronic Forgery
Electronic forgery is becoming commonplace. Money
can be fraudulently transferred among bank accounts using
computers. This is accomplished either by a bank employee
or over telephone lines via a personal computer and mo-
dem. Some computer experts, known as hackers, attempt
to gain entry into business accounts through their technical
abilities. These hackers can even shield themselves from
apprehension by using a network of nontraceable telephone
extensions. Credit card numbers can also be obtained using
computers. Credit card agencies which perform audits also
aid the criminal in his endeavors, as an unscrupulous audi-
tor will sell card numbers.
Art Forgery
When someone creates a replica of a piece of art, and
then sells it claiming it is the original, he is committing forg-
ery. The art of the masters has been forged with such skill
that even the copies have been mistaken for authentic
pieces and sold as originals.
To forge art, the forger must be a skilled artist himself.
If it is a painting that is going to be forged, the forger must
study the style of painting including brushstrokes, the way
paints are made, the colors used, and even the way the can-
vas is prepared. The forgery must then be aged. One
method to age a painting is to place it in an oven. Another
method is to drill small holes into wood art to give the ap-
pearance of worm holes. Some forgers will even acquire a
canvas dating back to the original period and then create
their forgery by scraping off the original painting and paint-
ing the forgery on top.
 Today, forged art items, especially rare pieces dating
back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century or earlier,
are easy to detect. Before the advances of modern labora-
tory analysis, an expert would have to examine the artwork
and give his opinion as to whether or not the article was
genuine. Modern laboratory analysis uses microscopes, X-
rays, infrared, ultraviolet and even chemical analysis to de-
tect the forger's handiwork. With an X-ray, you can look
under the first layer of paint to see if there were previous
paintings underneath. The use of infrared can reveal a sig-
nature that has been painted over by a forger who changed
the signature to that of a famous artist.
By removing very small pieces of the paint found on
the painting and analyzing those fragments, we can deter-
mine whether the pigments used were available during the
period when the painting would have been completed.
Through radio-carbon dating, organic material such as the
wood used to construct the frame or the sculpture itself,
can be dated. Also any paper or inks used to create the
artwork can easily be dated based on the material content
and the methods used to manufacture them.
Other Collectibles
Antique furniture, mechanical banks, porcelain curios,
children's toys, clothing or anything else there's a market
for, people are willing to forge. These items are easily aged
by exposing them to moisture, harsh chemicals, rough han-
dling, or outside elements, just to name a few. These collect-
ibles can then be sold for high profits at swap meets, antique
shows and even garage sales.
Coins. Forging coins can be extremely profitable. Coin col-
lectors or numismatists are willing to pay high prices to add
specific coins to their collections. Ancient coins from Eu-
rope are basically a chunk of flattened silver or gold
stamped by an engraved seal. These coins could later be
easily changed to a higher value by restamping. Eventually
the two-sided coin was manufactured.
Counterfeiters can easily duplicate two-sided coins
and make a profit by limiting the amount of gold and silver
placed in them. This became so much of a problem that
coin counterfeiters can receive the death penalty.
Slugs are pieces of metal the same size and weight of
the coin they are representing. Slugs are made by machines
that cut nonprecious metals like iron into circles. There are
no other identifying marks or alterations made to them.
They are sold for use at toll booths or vending machines,
and sell for around a quarter of the value of an actual coin.
Stamps. Postage stamps can also yield a profit for the tal-
ented forger. Rare or extremely old postage stamps can be
reproduced and sold at extremely high prices. To perform
this type of stamp forgery, simple engraving equipment is
needed. A "vertical camera," which is used to reproduce
high quality pictures, posters or brochures, can be used to
take an extremely detailed photograph of an authentic
stamp. Once a negative is produced, a counterfeit can easily
be manufactured with a printing press.
Other chapters cover the modus operandi of burglars, con
artists, hijackers, skyjackers and carjackers. All of these
criminals take property that can be used in one of two ways:
1. For the criminal'sownpersonal benefit, which is actu-
ally pretty rare.
2. For sale to a second party (a fence). The money from
this sale is then used for the criminal's own purpose.
The problem of converting stolen goods into cash is solved
by finding a suitablefence.The choice of a fence will depend
on a number of factors, most importantly the character and
the type of stolen goods and the underworld connections of
the particular criminal. T h e tremendous surge of crime by
addicts in recent years has brought about changes in the
multi-million dollar fencing trade. Some addicts have taken
to selling stolen property, such as jewelry, on the streets.
 Fencing is a very difficult criminal charge to prove be-
cause the evidence against the fence is largely circumstan-
tial. The accused fence usually has a legitimate business,
and the testimony of criminals who conducted business with
him is generally not viewed as credible by members of the
jury. The activities of the criminal receiver or fence have to
be documented in great detail.
The most amazing aspect of a fence's operation is that,
despite being surrounded by the bottomfeeders of the crimi-
nal underworld, he is, except for the fact that he receives
stolen property, basically crime free. He is almost never a
drug, alcohol or gambling abuser, because these personal
problems would severely impair his ability to run a business.

Fences a n d t h e L a w
An accused fence is most often charged with receiving sto-
len property. The police know that the property is stolen.
But how do they go about the laborious task of proving this
in court? For an item to be proven stolen and for the fence
to have knowledge that it is stolen, the following four ele-
ments must always be present:
1. The property actually fenced must, of course, be sto-
len. If a person down on his luck decides to trade in
the sofa or television set for a ridiculously low price
and the fence buys it, has the fence committed any
crime? Of course not; the fence has taken advantage
of someone who accepted a low price for an item that
he felt was no longer important in his life. This could
be a destitute person seeking quick cash or a person
cleaning out his garage. There is never a crime if the
property is not stolen.
2. The property, if it is stolen, must be received by the
fence, and the property must be found in the posses-
sion of the fence. If the store or warehouse where the
stolen property is found is owned and occupied only
by the fence, then there is no problem proving this in
a criminal investigation. However, the difficulty comes
 when there is more than one occupant of the ware-
house or office space. When interviewing four partners
in a rental warehouse where stolen property was
found, the investigator will get dizzy watching the fin-
gers the criminals point at each other.
3. The fence must have known that the property was sto-
len. How do you prove this knowledge if the accused
won't admit to it?
The astronomically low price the fence paid for
the item. This does not, in and of itself, prove the
property was stolen.
The person it was purchased from could never
have been the legitimate owner.
It was not bought from a responsible person or
from an established business.
4. The accused fence must have the intention to convert
the property to his own use. The detective attempts to
obtain any record of an effort by the fence to dispose
of the property. The detective must give particular at-
tention to any arrangements for the concealment of
the stolen goods.
Police Stings
Police agencies use undercover sting operations to
catch stolen goods rings. The police will set up a store
front that appears to sell completely legitimate merchan-
dise such as bicycles. The police spread rumors to their
contacts throughout the neighborhood that the store is
really a front for the purchase of stolen property. When
this rumor circulates and criminals bring in stolen mer-
chandise, they can be selective about the items they pur-
chase. During a sting operation, the police will purchase
many hundreds of stolen items, which are ultimately re-
turned to their rightful owners.
Overall, these operations are highly successful in terms
of arrests made and merchandise recovered. And they gen-
erally make money! For example, a sting operation buys,
let's say, $300,000 to $400,000 in stolen merchandise, and
another $200,000 is expended in salaries, equipment, rent
and overhead. After the merchandise is recovered and sold
at auction if it cannot be returned, it will net usually four
to five times the actual price paid by the law enforcement
agency during the operation of the undercover sting.

Types o f Fences
The lay fence knowingly buys stolen property for personal
consumption: a pickpocket or petty thief who steals credit
cards, checks, money or money orders and uses them him-
self. A lay fence buys stolen property without the intent to
resell it to persons and instead intends to use it for his own
benefit.
The occasional fence buys stolen property for resale to
other persons but does so infrequently.
The professional fence deals in stolen merchandise as
his main occupation. The difference between the occasional
fence and the professional fence can be slight and is based
on the frequency of accepting and reselling stolen goods.
This can most easily be determined by the area in which a
fence operates. City fences are often professionals while
suburban fences are more often occasional fences.
The amount of merchandise a professional fence buys
is affected by a number of factors: the condition of the mar-
ket in general; the amount of capital he has; the difficulty
of securing the merchandise, including the measures he
must take to protect himself; and his contact with potential
buyers. Of all these factors, fluctuations in the general mar-
ket have the most impact on the fence's purchases. Many
other things affect the business, such as the competence of
the fence, his business sense, the attention he gives to his
work, his particular industry or purchasing area, the condi-
tion of his health, his relationship with his wife, his personal
and interpersonal relationships with thieves and the third
party purchasers of his merchandise, and his professional-
ism in general.
What are the criteria that distinguish a fence from
other traders in stolen goods?
 First, the fence must be a dealer in stolen property: A
buyer and seller with direct contact with thieves (sellers)
and customers (buyers).
Second, the fence must be successful: He must buy and
sell stolen property regularly and profitably and must have
done so for a considerable period of time, usually many
years.
Third, the fence must be public: He must acquire a
reputation as a successful dealer in stolen property among
police officers, thieves and others acquainted with the crim-
inal community. He must eat, live, sleep and breath stolen
property.

H o w t o Become a P r o f e s s i o n a l Fence
A fence does not become a fence overnight. Let's face it,
anyone can make money buying and selling stolen property.
But, a fence is a businessman, and, as such, he must have a
little bit of capital, a little bit of opportunity, and willingness
to do the work. As a businessman, the fence learns how to
buy and sell merchandise, and where to locate his business
so that it increases his capital. A fence starting out with
minimal capital can overcome that hurdle with a willingness
to look for opportunities to make a quick turnover. He must
also have the ability to understand market conditions.
There is a strong similarity between fences and entrepre-
neurs. For a fence to become successful he must gain as
much knowledge as possible about the type of product that
he is going to buy and sell.
The fence who is a generalist in all items is a ready
market for those things most commonly stolen. He is much
like a K mart or a WalMart of fences because his attraction
is a wide variety of products. He will be willing to buy and
sell most things without much notice. But, much like a regu-
lar business, he must be careful not to become overstocked.
Some fences specialize in one or two particular items
such as art, antiques or jewelry, but most fences are general-
ists and can easily adapt to market conditions. The success-
ful fence learns how to wheel and deal. He must examine
 Who Came First?
It has been said many times that if there were no
fences there would be no thieves. If there were no one
to accept stolen property, burglars or thieves wouldn't
steal. We can tell you that this is absolutely and unequivo-
cally not true. Many thieves work without the aid of a
fence, and others simply use the fence as a middleman.
For example: A burglar or thief steals money, credit
cards or checks and passes them in retail establishments
or through telephone orders. Some thieves sell stolen
property to unsuspecting fences. In this particular in-
stance, the fence becomes a noncriminal receiver of the
property, as he has no idea that the merchandise is stolen.
Also, even the most scrupulous and honest pawnbrokers,
secondhand merchandise peddlers, auctioneers and junk
dealers buy stolen property on occasion, that is, property
that they know to be stolen.
If all fences were to disappear in the next three sec-
onds, many thieves would shift to stealing merchandise
that didn't need a fence to dispose of it. If there were no
fences, there would still be all sorts of thieves and maybe
some new kinds that we don't have now.
the ways that his property is bought and sold, paid for and
transferred. A successful fence has the ability to make buy-
ing and selling stolen property appear no different from a
normal, legitimate business. For example, a fence dealing
in stolen automobiles will know a great deal about the laws
governing registration, title searches, vehicle inspection,
and transportation of vehicles.
The knowledge necessary to appear legitimate often
comes from previous careers. A successful jewelry fence,
for instance, is likely to be a former jeweler. A fence of
stolen cars was once an automobile dealer. A fence of stolen
art and antiques might be an artist himself. This is especially
true when the fence deals exclusively in one type of com-
modity. But, a fence who is a generalist may employ special-
ists from time to time for merchandise such as art or jewelry.
 Sooner or later, in order to go into business, the fence
must go public, that is, become known to thieves, customers,
police and others as a fence. Becoming public with the
police involves getting questioned, investigated and
searched; being handcuffed, booked, fingerprinted and
photographed; facing a line-up; being brought before a
judge, placed in a cell and bailed out; and of course, being
officially and publicly known as a criminal. However, this
can be beneficial to the fence, because within the criminal
community an arrest or conviction is normally considered
to be good evidence that the fence's relationship with the
police is not too cozy and that he is not a rat at least by
the criminals' standards.
The most important part of being a successful fence is
avoiding capture: The fence applies himself to buying and
selling stolen property in such a way that makes him appear
no different from other business owners. The most common
way to do this is to accept stolen property as a supplement
to a legitimate business such as a pawnshop, a consignment
shop, or a used furniture or appliances store. It should also
be remembered that unknowing legitimate businesses are
sometimes used by criminals as fences. A good sob story
can help a convincing thief unload a "hot" item to an unsus-
pecting mom and pop pawnshop.

D e p i c t i n g a P r o f e s s i o n a l Fence
The fence must have genius, that is, ingenuity, cunning, re-
sourcefulness, energy and a mysterious power, sometimes
referred to as personal magnetism or charisma. He must be
able to manipulate thieves, because he depends on them to
be profitable.
Like con men, the fences characterized in your works
should be colorful and flamboyant. Basically their character
has a lot to do with the way they negotiate, and negotiate
they will! Who else could convince a con man to take $30
for $300 worth of retail goods? In addition to being flamboy-
ant and charismatic, fences are outgoing, gregarious and
knowledgeable of retail and wholesale prices.
 So remember, when writing about fences, make them
smart, colorful, flamboyant entrepreneurs and, of course,
successful! Place them in legitimate businesses, in cities, in
the suburbs, make them black or white, cooperative with
the police investigators, but keep them one step ahead of
the police. Make them wheelers and dealers, and good lis-
teners, but most importantly make them stand out, so that
they will be remembered in your works.
Criminal homicide occurs when the death of a human being
is purposely, knowingly and/or recklessly caused by another.
To make a charge of criminal homicide, the detective must
first prove that a homicide actually occurred.

Medical Examiners
The forensic detective investigates a criminal homicide to
determine the manner of death (the circumstances sur-
rounding a death), while the medical examiner or coroner
will determine the cause of death (the medical reason for
death). The medical examiner or coroner will determine
that death was due to homicide, suicide, an accident or a
medical condition. A medical examiner must be a medical
doctor, preferably a forensic pathologist. But a coroner, in
some states, is not required to have a medical degree; they
can be a Justice of the Peace, funeral director, a political
appointee, or elected official.

As early as A.D. 1250 societies took action to apprehend

and punish a person for taking the life of another inten-
tionally. In China, the first documented mention of an
autopsy listed how postmortem examinations should be
conducted. It gave details on how a person's body should
appear if he were involved in a drowning or a fire and
explained the difference between blunt object wounds
and stab wounds. The Chinese were also the first to use
fingerprints to document people.
One of the first noted medical examiners in history
was Antistius, the physician who examined the body of
Julius Caesar. Antistius determined the cause of death
to be one stab wound to Caesar's chest. He further docu-
mented that Caesar received twenty-three stab wounds
at the hands of his assailant.
Autopsies developed in Europe around 1507. The
first recorded coroner's examination in the United States
was in New Plymouth, New England, around 1635, based
on autopsies practiced in England.
Once it has been determined what killed a person, it
is up to the detective to determine how and why a person
died. And, of course, whodonit.

Killing and the M.O.

When someone commits a crime, whether it's stealing a car
or killing a person, the M.O. will change from scene to scene
but remain consistent in other forms. Let's follow a homi-
cide detective trying to make sense out of a series of killings
that bear similar yet different traits.
Victim #1
Victim # 1 was found dumped in a secluded wooded
area and buried in a shallow grave with his hands tied with
a small piece of clothes line. His mouth was filled with a
piece of cloth, with another tied securely over the mouth
and around the back of the head. The victim had numerous
stab wounds to the chest, and the body revealed significant
amounts of pre-mortem injuries, especially defense-type
wounds on the hands and arms. The defense wounds were
from striking out at the murderer. No signs of sexual assault
were found.
It was determined that the victim was abducted while
walking home from a part-time job at a convenience store.
All the victim's jewelry and money were found on the body.
Victim #2
The second victim was again a male (about the same
age as Victim #1) and had his hands bound with duct tape.
A piece of duct tape was securely fastened over his mouth.
The victim showed no signs of a struggle and had been
strangled. Upon examining the body further, it was evident
that he had been sexually assaulted and his neck chain was
missing. The victim in this case was found dumped in the
same area near the first victim.
Given this minimal amount of information, do you see
a similar M.O.? The first victim was found with his hands
secured with rope. The second was secured with duct tape.
From this we can determine that our suspect exhibited
learned behavior. While trying to secure the first victim, the
suspect had problems, evidenced by the bruising on the
hands and arms. This is also why he used duct tape on the
mouth of the second victim.
The first victim was stabbed to death with the knife
that was used to capture him. Our suspect lost control of
the situation, and fearing apprehension, stabbed the victim.
He panicked, drove the body to a remote wooded area, and
disposed of the body. Our suspect intended to sexually as-
sault the first victim, but because of the struggle and fear
of detection, this did not occur.
The second victim was sexually assaulted and strangled
and the necklace was removed. The second victim was more
easily controlled; perhaps a handgun was used this time.
Shortly after or perhaps during the sexual assault, the victim
was strangled. The chain was removed from the victim's
neck, not for monetary gain, but to keep as a trophy, which
our suspect may use in later sexual fantasies.
At first blush these two deaths seem only to be mini-
mally related. But understanding and using the theory of
learned behavior assists many detectives in apprehending
suspects. By studying the crime scene, the detectives iden-
tify and interpret different pieces of evidence that can link
one crime to another. Suspects with a long history of arrests
and incarceration time change their M.O.'s as practice
shows them what works and what doesn't.

Passion K i l l i n g s
A passion killing usually takes place with little forethought
and very little, if any, planning. An argument may begin
over who takes out the trash, and the rage will become so
intense that one person will lash out at the other. A physical
assault will take place, and a weapon, if close at hand, will
be used.
Domestic Assault
In a case where the assault takes place in a home, let's
say in the kitchen, a knife or a large carving fork may be
within easy reach. If there is a firearm in the house, the
killer will seek it out and use it. The victim will be left at
the scene, which will show signs of a struggle, but no attempt
will be made to cover up the crime.
Homicide-Suicide
With jilted lovers, the rejected boyfriend will plan a
meeting with his lover as a desperate last attempt at recon-
ciliation. The meeting will be conducted in a semi-secluded
area, such as a familiar park, perhaps a place that has spe-
cial meaning to the couple. The man, on realizing that his
attempts to reunite are not working, will pull out a weapon,
usually a handgun, shoot his lover and then himself.
The Disgruntled Employee
We've heard a lot about disgruntled employees re-
cently, most notably, stressed-out postal service workers
who go into their former offices and begin shooting. A dis-
gruntled employee is often distraught over the promotion
of a co-worker or over being fired and usually plans revenge,
including a hit list of people he wants to kill. He will obtain
enough weaponry to complete his mission and then some.
Once he has made up his mind, there is no stopping him.
The killing spree will occur at the work place during work-
ing hours.

P r e m e d i t a t e d Domestic K i l l i n g
When one spouse kills another for insurance money or
other financial gain (also known as a profit murder), or
because of threats of divorce or personal disclosures, the
suspect will attempt to cover up his act by acting the part
of the grieving husband. The suspect will plan the murder
and arrange the scene using props and prearranged scenar-
ios to cover up his involvement.
One way this is accomplished is by being a victim him-
self. He will injure himself to show the police that he at-
tempted to subdue the criminal or protect his loved ones.
He will break doors, open windows, ransack the house,
place a ski mask and gloves outside on his property just to
show that he could not possibly be involved.
Prior to or after the stage is set, the victim will be killed
in a way consistent with the scenario. If the story told to
police is that the victim fell down a flight of stairs, head
injury will be the cause of death. This head injury can be
caused by blunt force trauma to the head with an object like
a baseball batwe're sure you get the picture.
Poisoning is usually the preferred method of a very
intelligent person who understands the complex procedures
needed to cover up this act. On the other hand, a very dumb
person, not knowing of the toxicology examination per-
formed at an autopsy, may feel that this is the best way to
commit his crime.
 Another scenario may be that the spouse places a sed-
ative of some type into a beverage or a dish at dinner. Once
the victim passes out, he will be pushed down a flight of
stairs or even placed into a vehicle and an accident will be
staged. In rural areas, the victim may be put in a situation
where the death seems to be caused by animal behavior,
such as a kick to the head by a horse.
Adjunct Homicide
When a detective is looking at a homicide, he must take
into account the whole scene. He cannot zoom in on just
the body; he must look at the complete picture.
Take for example, a burglar surprised by the victim
during the course of burglarizing his home. Prior to killing
the homeowner, the suspect gained entry into the house.
He had to enter rooms and look for items of value to steal.
He had to locate something to carry his loot out of the
house. This is our criminal's M.O. The killing is secondary.
By studying the M.O. of the burglary, the homicide detec-
tive can also determine the murderer.
The Cover-up Murder
In a perpetrator's mind, they sometimes must kill peo-
ple to cover up other acts of crime and violence. A juvenile
offender robbing a house is discovered by the homeowner
as he walks into his bedroom. The victim will be able to
positively identify the juvenile to the police. He will use a
weapon at hand, or with the increasing tendency to carry
handguns, shoot and kill the victim with the hopes of cover-
ing up his burglary.
Sex Offenders
A sex offender will sometimes kill at the conclusion of
his sexual assault, usually by some form of strangulation.
He may even kill as part of his sexual gratification. This is
done in many ways during his assault upon the victim. The
sex offender may cause additional mutilation after the kill-
ingvampirism, cannibalism and physical probes of the vic-
tim are not uncommon. Souvenirs are sometimes taken, in-
 cluding photographs, videotapes or articles of clothing.
Multiple stab wounds and bite marks around the breasts
and genitalia are also common.
This type of behavior is the signature aspect of a crime.
These criminals will repeat a certain behavior at each crime
scene. By acting out their personal fantasies, the killing be-
comes almost ritualistic as the crimes continue. However,
as time goes on, these signatures may expand to more grue-
some mutilations postmortem.
When dealing with sadistic or ritualistic criminals, it
is important to consider their psychological behavior. The
ritualistic or sadistic killer performs to satisfy his mental
needs. One of these needs may be to strike fear into the
general public, and he wants the world to know that he is
the one committing these terrible crimes. To stimulate his
own personal fantasies and achieve notoriety, he will incor-
porate a signature into the killings.

Serial Killers
It is not uncommon for multiple or serial killers to leave a
taunting bit of evidence for the police, usually referred to
as a calling card. These calling cards are intended to direct
police to the suspect or to new victims.
Very violent homicides can be brought on by sexual
fantasies manifested by the killer. These fantasies become
uncontrollable, causing the suspect to act out his fantasies,
slowly at first, but eventually with a growing frenzy. Sexual
abuse may occur pre- or postmortem. Serial killers often
attack only a particular type of person. His fantasies dictate
the victim including hair color and/or length, facial features,
body type, age, nationality, or a resemblance to someone
from his past.
Sexual assault plays only one part in the modus ope-
randi of serial killers. Some kill because they enjoy the vic-
tim's fear and the act of killing. On occasion, serial killers
kill the victim in front of family members to gain a sense of
domination.
To gain control over victims, a serial killer will use a
number of different methods. He may coax a prostitute into
his vehicle on the premise of using her services. He may
coax a victim into his vehicle by asking directions or offering
a ride. He may even ask for assistance in repairing his vehi-
cle or locating a lost animal.
Once inside the vehicle, control is the first objective.
This is done through physical force and/or possession of a
weapon. When young people are the victims, verbal threats
are used. Another method is to say that they won't be
harmed but will be used for a particular situation, such as
to gain entry into a building.
These types of homicides usually are performed on
victims who are social outcasts. The victims are not involved
with family members and are likely to not be reported as
missing. Secondly, the criminal wrongly believes when they
are reported missing, because they are social outcasts, po-
lice will not pursue the case as efficiently.
The victim allows himself to become a victim by being
in situations and locations where few people will observe
an abduction. One example is a prostitute who stands on
street corners in undesirable areas and has no problems
with getting into a stranger's vehicle.
Some homicide scenes will be left in such a way that
it is shocking or disturbing when they are discovered. Other
killers will insert spoons or pieces of wood in the victim's
genitals. This is done mainly for curiosity's sake and usually
points to a younger male with little or no sexual experience.
Mutilation of the victim's genitals usually points to a sexual
sadist.
The suspects will, during the course of the crime, have
the victim perform certain functions in an attempt to hinder
detection by destroying evidence. The victim may be made
to shower or wash up after sexual acts. The victim may also
be made to clean up areas where the suspect feels evidence
might be obtained.
When suspects know the victim prior to killing them,
it is not uncommon for the suspect to actively assist the
police in an attempt to steer them away from the crime.
They will even comfort family members and render assis-
tance to them. This behavior is overly cooperative but can
be very distracting to the investigators.
Contract K i l l i n g
Contract killings are used by gangs organized or other-
wiseto rid themselves of a member who is perceived as
disloyal, a screw-up, or a danger to the gang. La Cosa Nos-
tra, the most notorious organized crime gang of the twenti-
eth century, will usually hire an outsider. They often choose
Irish mobsters known as The Westies, because they live pre-
dominately on the west side of New York City, and who are
calculated, cold-blooded killers who will kill at any time and
any place. Their weapon of choice and usual killing method
is a shot from a small caliber handgun to the head.
Other contract killings are done by outlaw biker
gangs called the 1 percenters. The 1 percenters were given
this name in a speech by the president of the American
Motorcycle Association. In this speech he stated only 1
percent of all motorcyclists in the United States belong
to outlaw biker gangs. The 1 percenters biker colors in-
clude the club's emblem, gang name, chapter number and/
or chapter location.
Organized crime members like to use the 1 percenters
and the Westies because of their vicious nature and their
loyalties. They will not divulge to law enforcement the cir-
cumstances involved. These contract killings can be as sim-
ple as placing an explosive device under the front seat of
the target's vehicle. This device is activated when the car is
started or by a remote-control device. Other hits could be
in the workplace, a sidewalk, a restaurant or any other place
where one can easily kill the target.
An assassination could take place as follows: The tar-
get is driven to a remote location under the pretense of
performing a task. While the target is occupied, a gunman
will come up from behind and shoot him at close range in
the head. The victim is left where he is shot. Assassins do
not want to be apprehended with a body in the trunk of
their vehicle. The weapons used are dumped, preferably
into a river, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to
recover them.
Inner-city gangs generally deal with problem members
or members of other gangs themselves. Everyone has heard
of drive-by shootings. This is the usual assassination method
of ethnic gangs. A plan is formulated and a location, almost
always on the opposing gangbanger's turf is picked. Some-
times, a car will be stolen and other times they will use
their own vehicle. The vehicle is loaded with four or five
gangbangers who drive to the location with the passenger's
side facing their target. Upon arrival, they indiscriminately
open fire.
Gangbangers prefer high-capacity, large-caliber weap-
ons of mass destruction. They want to spray as many bullets
as possible in the shortest time possible. They will use both
semiautomatic and fully automatic weapons. AK-47s and
9mm or .45 caliber semiautomatic pistols are most often
used. Some of the flashier gangbangers choose chrome-
plated weapons. Gangbangers have even been known to
possess military hand grenades.

R i t u a l i s t i c Cults
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Satanism was popular.
Satanists believe that the more they kill, the more power
they will achieve in hell. The more innocent their victims,
the more power they will receive. Thus, babies and virgins
are in demand. People are attracted to Satanism because
they are attempting to receive the power of demons and use
it for themselves. Satanism is growing again and the crimes
related to it are increasing, but there is no statistical way to
measure the threat. When criminals are arrested, they are
arrested for the crime, not for what they believe in.
In teen occult practices, you may or may not find sym-
bols and instruments related to Satanism. In some satanic
circles, where sacrificing is performed, ritualistic symbols
and other paraphernalia will abound.
A noteworthy case of satanic killing is the night stalker
Richard Ramioez who was accused of killing fourteen peo-
ple. The satanic ritual aspect of the case came out when
pentagrams were found at several of the homicide scenes
and when a witness testified that she was forced to swear
to Satan that she would not call for help when Ramioez left
from the scene.

Stabbing
Stabbing deaths account for a large number of homicide-
related deaths yearly. Some statistics report that the num-
ber of deaths caused by stabbing is just below the number
caused by gunshot wounds.
There are two types of injuries caused by sharp items.
The first is the stab wound: A pointed object, such as a
knife, is pushed through the skin causing injury to the vic-
tim. Little or no bruising is observed around the wound.
The hilt of some knives may cause bruising. The bleeding
associated with the stab wound is internal and little blood
is observed at the crime scene. The injuries suffered are
internal and to the different organs of the body.
The second is the cut wound: A sharp knife, or other
object such as a razor blade, is dragged across the skin caus-
ing cuts to the surface of the skin. These injuries will bleed
profusely and will only be as deep as the pressure that is
applied. Therefore, the injury indicates the amount of force
used to make the cut.
Cut wounds are closely related to defense wounds. De-
fense wounds are injuries suffered by the victim in an at-
tempt to protect himself from the attack. Defense wounds
are found on the palms of his hands and on his fingers from
when our victim made an attempt to grab the knife. Fingers
will be cut deeply causing a large amount of bleeding. When
the knife is grabbed by the victim, the perpetrator will pull
back with extreme force causing large wounds.
Defense wounds may also be located on the forearms,
below the knees on the legs, and sometimes the feet as the
victim kicks the assailant.
For suicides, stab and cut wounds are quite different.
The victim will show signs of past attempts of suicide: old
scars or semi-healed wounds from prior attempts. At the
time of the suicide, a number of superficial wounds will be
present. These wounds are referred to as hesitation wounds
and are caused by the victim's attempts to cut himself.
Most suicide lacerations are horizontal. Even with self-
inflicted stab wounds, the victim will have hesitation
wounds from experimenting prior to the actual suicide. This
is one of the ways of determining if a victim was killed by
his own hands or those of another.
Some weapons used in stabbings are axes, scissors,
forks, screwdrivers, razors, kitchen knives or ice picks. The
following cases give an indication of how stab wounds and
their attendent (or non-attendent) blood splatter and pool-
ing assist the forensic detective in determing the method of
death:
Example 1: A young couple are at home and are complain-
ing about the lack of money to pay their bills. The argument
starts in the living room, and proceeds to the bedroom
where the wife attempts to take refuge. The husband forces
his way into the bedroom by pushing the locked door open.
The wife, fearing for her safety, picks up her knitting nee-
dles and strikes the husband until he is mortally wounded.
The victim's body may show defense wounds on the hands
and forearms. The body may also show signs of one or more
stab wounds. All injuries to the victim will be pre-mortem.
The blood splatter found at the scene will be consistent with
the suspect's story and the blood will be contained in one
room.
Example 2: Let's take our same young couple and add
some complicating factors. The wife wants to leave the hus-
band because she found a better lover, but she knows that
if she gets a divorce, she will walk away with little or no
money. The wife and boyfriend plan to kill the husband and
to make the homicide appear to be self defense. In this
case, the husband may be found in the kitchen area or the
bedroom. The husband will show few or no defense wounds
because the attack will be a surprise. The stab wounds will
be numerous and may even be found on his back. Some stab
wounds will be postmortem.
The victim's body will contain both cut and stab
wounds and the blood splatter will not be consistent with
the suspect's story. The blood splatter will be consistent
with defensive behavior such as fleeing from room to room
and there will be blood pooling where the victim has
stopped to defend himself.
Example 3: A middle-aged fellow is walking home from
work and, prior to arriving home, he is stopped and robbed
by the neighborhood gang at knife point. Our victim, having
been robbed numerous times in the past, decides he is going
to fight back. The victim is found the next morning with a
single stab wound to the chest. Little or no blood will be
observed at the scene. Most of the victim's bleeding will be
internal, leaving small blood staining around the wound on
the victim's clothing.
Example 4: A young woman is walking to her vehicle after
leaving work one night. The suspect grabs her from behind,
places a large knife to her throat, and demands that she
obey his requests. The victim is then taken to a waiting van
where she is forced to lie on her stomach while her hands
are secured behind her with duct tape. The victim's eyes
and mouth are also covered with duct tape to prevent her
from calling for assistance and seeing the suspect. The vic-
tim's body will show bruises caused by rough treatment at
the hands of the suspect. The victim will show signs of sexual
assault and will receive from one to multiple stab wounds
depending on the psychological motivation of her attacker.

D e a t h b y Gunshot
Before we get into some examples, let's take a moment to
discuss the different types of weapons and wounds that one
will find. The so-called small arms are basically weapons
that can be carried easily and comfortably by one person.
They include machine guns, submachine guns, handguns,
shotguns and rifles. We have, on occasion, observed cases
involving cross bows and long bows. In most cases involving
a bow and arrow, the person using these weapons has a
hunting background, and these weapons are readily at hand.
Handguns come in many forms from the very simple
to the very complex. Zip guns are homemade single shot
pistols usually carried by gang members and guerrilla fight-
ers. Only one round of ammunition can be inserted and
fired.
Derringers and Saturday Night Specials are small,
cheaply-made handguns. Most Derringers contain cham-
bers for two rounds and can only be fired one at a time. The
Saturday Night Specials are knock offs of more expensive
revolvers.
Revolvers, or wheel guns, are pistols with a two- to
twelve-inch barrel. The rounds are inserted into the
wheeled chamber, which can hold from five to eight rounds.
The shell casings will remain inside the chamber until they
are physically ejected.
The auto-loading pistols, which are also called semi-
automatic handguns, use a magazine to contain the rounds.
The magazine is placed into the pistol grip, and shells are
fed into the cylinder by the action of the slide. After firing,
the shell casing is ejected from the weapon.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the make up
of a round, it contains four components:
1. Bullet
2. Shell casing
3. Powder
4. Primer.
The bullet, or projectile, is the portion that leaves the barrel
of the weapon. The shell casing holds the powder, a flamma-
ble propellant similar to black powder, and the bullet. The
final component is the primer, which rests at the base of
the round. When struck by the weapon's firing pin, it creates
an ignition source for the powder, which ignites and turns
into gases that force the bullet out of the shell casing and
down the barrel of the weapon.
 The basic sizes of ammunition used for semi-automatic
handguns are (starting from the smallest): .22 caliber, .25
caliber, .32 caliber, .380 caliber, 9mm, .40 caliber, 10mm
and .45 caliber. Other handgun calibers used primarily for
revolvers are: .38 caliber, .357 caliber, .41 caliber and .44
caliber. Caliber refers to the diameter of the muzzle, or
opening, of a gun's barrel and is measured either in hun-
dredths or thousandths of an inch or in millimeters.
Handguns are popular weapons because they are easy
to conceal. Because they are so popular, we are going to
concentrate on them.
The bullet creates a number of different injuries re-
ferred to as gunshot wounds. These wounds are classified
into four categories, based on the distance from the muzzle
of the weapon to the victim at the time of injury:
1. The contact wound, occurs when the muzzle of the gun
is placed directly against the victim's body.
2. The near contact wound when the muzzle of the gun
does not come in physical contact with the victim's
body but is only a short distance away (one to three
inches).
3. The intermediate gunshot wound occurs when the muz-
zle of the gun is six to eight inches away from the victim
but close enough to have the victim burnt by the gun-
powder. This burning is also known as powder tattooing.
Powder tattoos can be found on the clothing or skin
of the victim.
4. The distant wound occurs when the muzzle of the gun
is more than fifteen to eighteen inches from the victim
and no injury other than the bullet passing through the
skin is apparent.
When investigating gunshot wounds, the official will take
into consideration the size or caliber of the weapon. Basi-
cally, the smaller the weapon, the closer the weapon needs
to be for powder tattooing. When examining the body, the
official will also look for the direction or path of the bullet.
This is determined through a number of observations and
can give clues to the type of killing. For instance, a person
usually does not commit suicide by holding a gun to the
back of his own head.
The entrance wound is where the bullet enters and is
identified by powder tattooing, if the weapon is close
enough, and/or the abrasion wound, which happens when
the bullet passes through the skin. The rotating action of
the bullet causes the skin around it to abrade where the
bullet enters. This abrasion appears as a reddish mark
around the hole itself. Entrance wounds are usually small,
the size of the projectile including the abrasive ring.
Exit wounds, no matter the distance from which the
weapon is fired, are larger, more irregular and usually do
not have the abrasion ring.
Experts use the aforementioned characteristics to de-
termine the path of the bullet and the distance of the
weapon from the victim. This is extremely helpful in verify-
ing the suspect's account of what happened.
When dealing with homicides that occur indoors, it is
important to remember that, whether it be a domestic dis-
pute or a sexual sadist, most of the bullets will hit the mark.
This is mainly because of the close proximity of the weapon
to the victim.

Things t o R e m e m b e r
Most criminals are apprehended because they don't realize
the clues they leave behind. This is especially true of homi-
cides. Even the most carefully laid plan can result in an
arrest. Here are a few ways the manner of death can lead
to an arrest.
Strangulation. Here's an example of killing someone for
greed, an important motivation. One scenario is the busi-
ness partnership where one partner wants to buy out the
other partner and is unsuccessful. The business contract
indicates that upon death, the surviving associate will main-
tain controlling interest. Our greedy partner decides that
he will kill his partner to obtain control.
He has decided that the best way is to have the victim
appear to hang himself and sets his plan into action. He will
speak with employees and other associates about how he
feels that his partner is down in the dumps lately to plant
the idea of suicide among co-workers.
After work one night he uses the associate's personal
typewriter to type a heart-felt suicide note and then signs
the note by tracing the signature. The day of the killing, he
will ask the victim to stay a little later to go over some busi-
ness details. When the office is empty, the killer will make
his way behind the victim and using a piece of clothesline,
which he retrieved from his garage earlier that day, strangle
the victim.
Now, you are all thinking that the victim sees the rope
and starts to fight back. What we must remember here is
that the victim has no idea of what is happening. He feels
entirely comfortable with his partner. The killer has no need
to wear gloves because his fingerprints would normally be
found throughout the office. Once the victim has suc-
cumbed to the attack, the clothesline is removed and the
victim is moved to a coat rack and the clothesline is replaced
with the victim's telephone cord. The rope is taken from
the scene by the assailant and prior to leaving, the suicide
note is placed in an obvious location on the victim's desk.
The next day the killer will be late for work so that
someone else finds the body. Now, remember, he told co-
workers and friends of his partner's depression and placed
the suicide note in an obvious location. The police respond
and observe the suicide note and the lack of any signs of
struggle in the office. There's only one problem, our killer
left a handful of clues. The victim's secretary knows that
the victim worked late with his partner. The victim's wife is
aware of the attempted takeover of the company. The vic-
tim's body shows the rope imprint. Through handwriting
analysis, it is determined that the signature was indeed
forged by tracing.
Accidents That Aren't. A husband returns home and finds
his wife lying face down in a water-filled bathtub. Appar-
ently, a slip and fall resulted in accidental drowning. The
police arrive and examine the scene and observe no signs
of foul play in the residence especially in the bathroom area.
The scene is documented and the victim removed.
The next day, an autopsy is performed, and the victim's
body is carefully examined. Close examination of the vic-
tim's neck reveal injuries from abrasions and lacerations.
These injuries were not visible until the victim's body was
thoroughly dry.
The lacerations are from the fingernails of the killer
as he strangled her and the victim's own fingernails as she
attempted to free herself. The other abrasions are from the
killer's hands squeezing the life from her. During the au-
topsy, we found that the tissue on her neck contained hem-
orrhages. The victim's larynx was fractured and we found
an additional fracture in the thyroid and the cricoid carti-
lages. The hyoid bone was also fractured, indicating signs
of strangulation.
When examining the injury to the head, which at first
appeared to be from slipping on the slick surface of the tub,
an autopsy revealed quite a different scenario. The injury
was to the top of the victim's head. The hemorrhages were
linear and caused by an impact with a hard rounded object
consistent with a small piece of metal pipe found in the
garage. Upon examination in the laboratory, the pipe
showed blood stains.
Decomposition. Decomposing victims can help an investi-
gation in some ways and severely hinder it in others. The
rate of decomposition helps detectives determine the time
of death. The medical examiner must take into consider-
ation the temperature and condition of the body. If the vic-
tim is placed in a refrigerated box, the rate of decomposition
will be quite slow. Think of it as chicken stored in your
refrigerator versus chicken stored in the freezer. Which will
last longer?
Another factor in decomposing is the effects that ani-
mal and insects have. Animals eat the flesh, which increases
the decomposing.
When examining a severely decomposed body, it is
hard to determine any soft tissue damage caused by sharp
or blunt objects. The skeleton will show broken bones and
bones that were cut by stab wounds. Animal activity and
gravity will separate bullets from the victim over time. Care-
ful excavation is necessary when dealing with decomposed
bodies and skeletons.
Mutilation. In passion killings, the injury to the victim is
done out of rage and will continue until the weapon is spent
or the rage subsides. Psychotic mutilations can be surgically
precise and sexual in nature, e.g., the removal of the nip-
ples. In sadistic killings, mutilation will be to terrorize and
cause pain by slashing the victim with a knife or assaulting
the victim with fist or other implements like metal pipes.
In sexually sadistic killings, ropes or cords will be used
and placed around the breasts, neck and hands, not only to
secure the victim but also for the sexual pleasure of the
perpetrator. Elaborate, erotic gags and blindfolds may also
be used.

Suicide o r H o m i c i d e
Let's see how good all you supersleuths really are! Or, are
you reading the last chapter first? What we are going to do
now is give you a real-life scenario so that all you Dick Tra-
cy's out there can solve the crime.
Suzy Sweetheart is an attractive woman in her late
thirties. Suzy has dated frequently, but never married. It
has been said that Suzy dresses a little bit too sexy for her
own good. Suzy lives in an apartment building a few blocks
from her job.
A co-worker becomes alarmed at the fact that Suzy,
who has never taken a sick day, has not reported to work
and failed to call in. She contacts the police and reports her
fear. The police dispatch a patrol car to Suzy's apartment.
The patrol officer knocks on Suzy's door and receives
no response. The officer then knocks at the next apartment
and is informed by the neighbor that Suzy was last seen
returning from work the previous evening. The officer then
attempts to locate Suzy by again knocking on her door. The
officer, upon receiving no response, turns the door knob
and finds it to be locked.
The officer summons the superintendent and requests
that the door be opened. Once the door is opened, the offi-
cer locates the victim on the floor of her bedroom, bound
with rope. At this time, the officer secures the scene and
summons the Major Crime and Forensic Units. The Foren-
sic Unit responds and after properly documenting the
scene, a cursory examination is conducted.
The victim is lying on her bedroom floor at the foot of
the bed. She is face down and completely naked. Her legs
are bent at the knee and her feet are resting against her
buttocks. Both feet are secured with rope and another rope
connects them to a loop of rope around her neck. Also
around her neck, under the rope is a very expensive silk
scarf. The victim's hands are bound loosely behind her back
just above her buttocks. Under the victim's body is a sheet
from the bed, which appears to have been placed there in
an attempt to cover or carry the victim from the scene.
Nothing else is out of place and no signs of a struggle
are observed. The only other item is that a patio door lead-
ing from her bedroom is unlocked and slightly ajar.
The Major Crime detectives canvasing the area have
located two neighbors, one living across the hall and one in
the apartment next to the victim, who report that in the past
they have overheard the victim arguing violently with her
boyfriend. Upon interviewing the boyfriend, he admits to
having had arguments with the victim, but states that he
never hit her and the last time he spoke with her was over
the phone at her job the day before she was found.
The victim's cause of death was determined at the au-
topsy to be asphyxiation. No other injuries were observed
on any location of the victim's body. Livor Mortis is consis-
tent with the position of the body after death. No signs of
sexual assault were found. OK, now, go bring the suspect
in for processing. So, what do you think? Definitely a homi-
cide, probably by the boyfriend? Well, if you want to find
out, you have to purchase our next book!
Kidnapping occurs when a person removes or unlawfully
confines another person for the purpose of a shield, hos-
tage, reward or ransom. Kidnapping is one of the most terri-
fying and cruel crimes that can be committed against an-
other human being. In our opinion, kidnapping has more
impact than homicide because of the uncertainty of the vic-
tim's whereabouts, condition and the likelihood of being
reunited with the victim. It is difficult for the family to move
on while these uncertainties weigh upon them.

Gang Kidnappings
Organized Crime
Organized crime has used kidnapping throughout the
years to gain control over rival gangs and government offi-
cials. Key personnel or their family members are kidnapped
and used as negotiating pawns.
Their goal is to complete the kidnapping with little or
no outside interference. The kidnap target will be followed
by one or perhaps two vehicles. When the kidnappers be-
lieve it is safe, they block the target's vehicle to prevent
escape. Once the victim's vehicle is stopped, he is forcibly
transferred to the kidnapper's vehicle.
The victim is then secured with handcuffs or other
binding. If the victim is struggling, his feet will be secured
too. Sometimes mace or another chemical agent is sprayed
in his face to debilitate him. Eventually, the victim will be
blindfolded and gagged with a piece of cloth or duct tape.
His eyes will be covered with duct tape, cloth or perhaps a
hood.
The kidnapper's vehicle is usually stolen to prevent
any chance of tracing the vehicle. Following successful com-
pletion of the kidnapping, the vehicle may be set ablaze to
conceal any evidence that may have been left in it. In some
cases, the kidnappers will use their own vehicles. But, if
they feel that they were observed during the kidnapping,
they will drive the vehicle to a remote location and report
it stolen. The victim is driven to a safehouse, maybe the
basement of a gang member's house, where chances of be-
ing discovered are minimal.
Money is only one type of ransom. In organized crime
kidnappings, the ransom is often control over a situation
such as not giving testimony, signing over property or con-
trol of a business, and agreeing to do their bidding, which
may include buying or shipping products from the kidnap-
pers. If the demands are met, the victim will be returned to
his family. If not, there is a good possibility that he will end
up dead.
Ransom demands could be made through a number
of different routes. It could be as simple as using a pay
phone to call a newspaper or the victim's family and make
the demands. When using a pay phone, it is a good idea to
use a different phone each time a call is made to prevent a
trace and subsequent surveillance of the area. Other meth-
ods of delivering demands are by U.S. mail using hand-writ-
ten letters from the victim or the notorious letters made of
words cut from newspapers or magazines. In some circum-
stances, a typewriter may be used for the letter.
Asian Gangs
Asian gangs perform their kidnappings in a very flam-
boyant way because their main purpose is to terrorize their
victims. A common scenario: The gang enters a restaurant
where the victim's family is having dinner, and at gun point
removes the victim from the premises. Or, they kidnap a
family member at home as he arrives from work. Family
members are often assaulted and, if enough resistance is
given, a family member may even be shot. The victim will
be bound and gagged with rope, duct tape or handcuffs,
placed into the rear of a van or the trunk of a vehicle and
transported to an apartment or warehouse.
The ransom demands will be given at the scene and
little or no communication will occur between the kidnap-
pers and the victim's family. Once the demands are met,
the victim may or may not be released to his family. Ransom
will most likely be for control over a business, for protection
money, money laundering or to silence a witness.
Another method may be to have a family member who
is still living in their country of origin receive threats of
death or incarceration if the family members in the United
States do not cooperate.
Drug Lords
Leaders of narcotic trafficking gangs find kidnapping
a useful tool in conducting business. They target judges to
throw a monkeywrench into prosecution efforts or political
leaders to suppress additional laws against narcotic traffick-
ing. Narcotic traffickers usually do not seek money because
they make substantial money from their narcotics traffick-
ing. When a government official refuses a bribe, the drug
lords attempt to gain control over them by kidnapping.
When all efforts fail, they are generally murdered.
Drug lords differ from other organized crime leaders
because they have extraordinary power over their communi-
ties. This power comes from supplying employment and
other basic needs for their communities especially in devel-
oping countries. These needs can include education, medical
care, housing and transportation. This power not only pro-
tects the drug lords, but assists them in hiding their victims.
The drug lord will assign members of his organization
to kidnap a victim at his residence. The victim could be a
family member or the official himself. Once in control of
the victim, the demands will be given to him and he will
be released. The victim knows that the drug lords mean
business, and since they kidnapped him once, they can eas-
ily do it again.

Ransom S e e k e r s
The ransom seeker chooses his target for the express pur-
pose of making money. Surveillance is conducted and a plan
is formulated, including methods of restraint and transpor-
tation, time and location of the kidnapping. The time and
location are picked to minimize the possibility of outside
interference. A location, which has no connection to the
kidnappers, is picked to house the victim. The kidnappers
use disguises or masks to cover their faces, wear gloves, and
travel in stolen vehicles.
Once the kidnapping is performed, the victim will re-
main at one location, and the kidnappers make their ransom
demands either through the mail or at various pay tele-
phones. If it is through the mail, the correspondence may
be cut and pasted, typewritten or handwritten. Delivery in-
structions are given once the kidnappers know the victim's
family will pay the ransom. No matter how much pre-plan-
ning was involved, someone physically has to pick up the
money and return to a location, making apprehension al-
most certain. Kidnappers, in an attempt to elude apprehen-
sion, will demand that the pick-up man return safely before
the victim is released. The pick-up man will not return to
where the victim is located, but instead will travel to a loca-
tion where he feels that no one has followed him.
In some cases, victims, instead of being returned to
their families, are found dead. This is because of an unex-
pected event like a medical condition or an escape attempt
which fatally injures the victim. From time to time poor
directions to the victim's location cause a delay in finding
him, and the victim dies from exposure or the binding the
kidnapper used to restrain him.
Once a person is kidnapped and the ransom demand
is made, a charge of extortion can also be levied against the
kidnapper. Extortion is the threat of harm for the purpose
of obtaining property (in this case, a person's money).
Cults
Fanatic religious cults kidnap by seeking out potential mem-
bers. These victims come from all walks of life, but they all
have a desire to belong. Cult members slowly seduce their
victims with promises of happiness and spiritual fulfillment.
This procedure is time-consuming and is carried out over an
extended period of time. Eventually, victims are asked to at-
tend a series of lectures or meetings where the brainwashing
begins. These meetings are choreographed in such away that
the leader appears to be a deity, apostle or disciple of God.
Cult members appear affectionate during these meetings,
but behave so the victim feels intimidation and a need to par-
ticipate. This is usually done by telling the victim of all the
good and miracles performed by the spiritual leader.
The brainwashing usually starts off with an overload
of information designed to cause confusion and a belief that
friends and family are outsiders and are attempting to, in
some way, harm or prevent the spiritual transformation the
victim is seeking. This is often performed by sleep depriva-
tion. Upon entering a cult, meetings and worship will con-
tinue for days. The cultists will not actually say that you
cannot sleep, but they will tell the victim that to achieve
enlightenment, he must continue to worship no matter how
tired he feels. Depriving the victim of water, food and bath-
room facilities re-enforces the brainwashing. The cultists do
this by explaining that the ability to control one's basic
needs is the first step to controlling one's thoughts.
The victim will not be given a chance to act on their
own without constant supervision, until the cult feels it is
safe to give the victim some freedom. The victim is informed
that to become a true member, he must release all outside
financial bonds, properties and money to the organization.
All of the victim's finances are eventually turned over to the
group and all outside contact with family members ceases.
The group suppresses all efforts by family members
and law enforcement authorities to personally contact the
victim. The victim may be moved around from state to state.
All financial and basic needs are provided by the cult so the
victim is dependant on the group for mere survival.
When Mauro worked as a detective sergeant for a po-
lice department, he was responsible for fingerprinting and
performing background checks on all people entering the
town for solicitation purposes. This was done by order of
the township for the protection of the citizens of the com-
munity.
One summer Saturday morning, a group of around
twenty-five members of a well-known religious cult was re-
ported soliciting and selling poor-quality silk flowers. The
patrols located the supervisor of the group who was ordered
to report with all members to police headquarters for pro-
cessing.
The permits cost five dollars each, which was paid by
the group leader, and the only identification the other
group members had was a picture ID issued by the cult.
While filling out the permit application, Mauro discovered
they were from all over the worldAustralia, South Africa,
Europe and Asia.
When dealing with religious cults, one must realize
that the leaders have a great deal of control over their vic-
tims. This was proven by Jim Jones and the People's Tem-
ple; Jones ordered all 912 of his followers to commit suicide
rather than return to the United States.

Fanatics a n d T e r r o r i s t s
Fanatics and terrorists use kidnapping in an attempt to gain
publicity for their cause. They will also use it to frighten
people and to achieve financial gains. These people are the
most dangerous because they truly believe in their cause
and feel that what they are doing is right.
Mauro interviewed a former member of a well-known
terrorist group who was in prison. When Mauro asked him
how he got involved, he stated that he truly believed that
his group was going to overthrow the United States govern-
ment, and he, along with other members, would do anything
to accomplish this goal.
He was incarcerated for his involvement in robbing
armored cars. The money obtained by robbing these vehi-
cles was used to supply items the group needed to survive.
These items included safehouses in different areas of the
country, transportation, basic living staples, as well as weap-
ons and explosives.
While questioning him further, Mauro asked him how
he would overthrow not only the law enforcement commu-
nity, but the military and the common people of our nation.
He replied that his group was strong enough to start the
revolution and that once it was started, the nation would
join their cause. He also stated that he felt like a colonialist
during the Revolutionary War, and that he would be re-
sponsible for overthrowing the U.S. government, just as his
forefathers declared their independence from England.
These types of groups will normally make a dramatic
kidnapping to increase their publicity. They wear military
clothes and carry military weapons. We all remember the
kidnapping and eventual enlistment of Patty Hearst in the
Symbionese Liberation Army. Once kidnapped, she was
brainwashed through isolation; she was left alone for days
at a time locked in a closet. She was told when to eat, when
to shower, when to use the bathroom, and all this time, she
was blindfolded and tied up by her captors.
Political propaganda was recited to her over and over,
and she was told that her lifestyle and that of her family
was unjust. Eventually, all this physical abuse and mental
anguish took its toll and she began to accept the teachings
of her captors. She was so involved with the organization at
one point that she participated in violent criminal activity.
 A terrorist will never avoid a conflict and will be willing
to sacrifice their comrades or themselves for their cause.
Their victims will probably be sacrificed or be turned into
a group member if held long enough.
Terrorist kidnappings are well planned and carried out
with military precision. A plan will be formulated taking
advantage of weak security precautions. This may occur
when the target is dropping off his child for piano lessons
or when he is rendezvousing with a mistress.
As our victim reaches the location of the kidnapping,
the passenger of a motorcycle fires a handgun at the driver
or tires to stop the vehicle. Once the vehicle is stopped,
the kidnappers jump out and break the vehicle's windshield
with a baseball bat or large stone. A car or van will arrive
to transport the victim away from the scene quickly. The
victim is secured with handcuffs or duct tape placed around
his hands, feet and mouth. The victim will be placed into a
trunk of a car or in the rear of a van.
The kidnappers will then drive to a location where the
victim will be kept. The victim will probably be moved peri-
odically from place to place to avoid detection. The ransom
demands will be sent in a note by courier or in a videotaped
message showing the victim to assure the authorities that
they indeed have him. Sometimes, ransom arrangements
will be made via the telephone or through a television, radio
station or local newspaper.
Terrorists usually demand ransom to carry on "the
cause." This ransom will include large amounts of money,
sometimes in the millions, and of course the release of polit-
ical comrades who are incarcerated around the world.
These ransom demands are basically made for the benefit
of the media rather than for the monetary gain. Think back
to the kidnappings and hijackings which happened in Iran
and Beirut; money became secondary to coverage of the
cause.
In some cases, to assure the authorities that their de-
mands must be met, the victim will have a body part re-
moved and shipped to the family.
 Did you ever wonder why no Communist officials or citi-
zens were ever kidnapped? This is because once a high-
ranking official of the KGB was kidnapped in a Mideast
country. An investigation was conducted and one of the
kidnappers was kidnapped and cut into little bitty pieces,
leaving only his head intact. By the way, they used a chain
saw to do this. After the dismemberment, the KGB care-
fully wrapped his body parts in a box, so the victim's face
stared up at the kidnappers when the box was opened.
The victim's body was accompanied by a short note de-
scribing what would happen to the remainder of the
group if the kidnap victim was not returned. This merry
package was dropped off in front of the leader's resi-
dence. Needless to say, within twenty-four hours, the kid-
nap victim was returned safely.

Parental Abduction
When a spouse is divorcing, it is usually over strong conflict
or physical abuse. One spouse may be intent on leaving the
other for another love interest. There may be sexual abuse
or domestic violence directed toward the children. Some-
times the noncustodial parent abducts the child or children
in the family.
If the abducting noncustodial parent feels that she is
doing this to protect her children from additional sexual
abuse, she may remove the children by telling them that
they are going for a ride. This is the beginning of the abduc-
tion. The parent tells the children that their other parent
does not love them anymore, or she will fabricate other
stories in an attempt to distance the children from the rest
of the family.
In the United States today, underground movements
assist noncustodial parents in eluding law enforcement, get-
ting custody returned to them, and providing basic life sup-
port. These underground movements are made up of fami-
lies and sympathetic supporters of abused and neglected
children. They set aside basements and other areas in their
homes to accommodate the runners. They will provide them
with food, transportation, money and legal expenses to as-
sist them in their time of need. When a location gets discov-
ered or after a certain amount of time, the family is moved
to another location, which could be in the same town or
several states away. This underground movement contacts
sympathetic family members by mailing letters to an out-
of-state safehouse who in turn will either forward the letters
to another location or deliver them to the family.
Parents who are not citizens of the United States will
abduct their child and return to their home country. Some-
times the noncustodial parent arranges a vacation to his
native country on the premise of meeting family members.
Once they arrive or a short time later, the custodial parent
will be informed that the children are not returning to the
United States. There is nothing the spouse can do to have
the child returned to the United States, other than kidnap-
ping the child in return.

Stranger Abduction
It is not really known nor could it be precisely analyzed
what percentage of abductions are by a stranger. Because of
the runaway population, throwaway kids or family members
involved in the disappearance of their children, an exact
figure can not be determined.
When a stranger abduction occurs, it is usually a ran-
dom event and the child does not have the ability to escape
or seek help. The offender could be a drifter, which makes
it incredibly hard to locate or even to identify him. When
stranger abduction occurs, they will be driving their own
vehicles and lure the child over to the vehicle with promise
of a reward, a plea for assistance, or by stating that they are
there on behalf of their parents, who have been injured,
and they need the child's assistance. Once in the vehicle,
the abductor will secure the victim with physical restraints
and make a quick getaway. The offender makes the abduc-
tion for a variety of reasons. There may be a sexual connec-
lion where the offender will seek out a certain sex, age and
type of victim, known as a profile.
Some offenders maintain custody for just a short time,
where others keep the child until they become a liability or
no longer fit their sexual profile. Offenders may trade their
victims to each other or eventually kill them and dispose of
them in an isolated area, out of state, so when they are found,
identification is nearly impossible. Stranger abduction is con-
sidered by some to be performed by a network of offenders,
where victims are taken and passed around and abused
throughout the United States. Others believe that there is no
network and that only a few offenders are responsible for the
abductions committed in the United States.
Serial Killer as Kidnapper
When you have offenders who abduct children or
adults for the purpose of killing them, called serial killers,
we classify them as kidnappers. Most serial killers prefer a
certain type of victim, often a person who will not be readily
missed. Prostitutes and the homeless are ideal victims. Most
prostitutes are loners and have no real contact with family
members or loved ones on a regular basis. Quick notifica-
tion of the absence of these victims is uncommon.
Most serial killers follow a pattern because they are
comfortable with it. They figure if it worked once, it will
surely work again. The abductor will select a certain type
of victim and will stay within that range. This range includes
age, hair color, body type and area of abduction along with
area of disposal, which will be a remote, desolate area. The
abductor lures the victim into his vehicle and once inside,
he will overpower and secure the victim. He may use duct
tape, rope or hand cuffs and will also have some type of
weapon on him. He may first sexually abuse the victim, then
slowly torture, and finally kill. Some will kill their victims
just for the pleasure of killing.
Apprehending Kidnappers
The chances of apprehension of a kidnapper seeking a re-
ward, especially in the United States, is great. The appre-
hension will he made through the many contacts the kidnap-
pers have to make to secure the delivery of their reward or
when they attempt to retrieve the ransom. The arrest comes
either at the location of the drop off to the kidnappers or
the ransom carrier will be followed through surveillance,
back to where the victim is located.
Kidnappers as ransom seekers, other than the Asian
gangs, do not generally think through the consequences of
their actions. In past kidnappings, almost all kidnappers
were apprehended.
Prostitution has been defined by the law as the practice of
offering your body indiscriminately for money or its equiva-
lent. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement re-
ports that there were over 50,000 arrests for prostitution
and commercialized vice in 1985. In 1992, the figures were
76,400 arrests nationwide, which assumes that approxi-
mately 65,000 persons were engaged in such activity with a
total yearly income of $322 million. Other studies have
claimed that prostitution involves 100,000 to 500,000 men
and women in the United States and that the profession
itself grosses more than a billion dollars a year.
It is a simple fact of life that some people either prefer
to or have to pay for sex, and as long as there are people
willing to pay for it, there will be others willing to sell it. It
is a classic case of supply and demand, just like any business.
Citizens complain that prostitution makes it impossi-
ble to carry on legitimate businesses in some parts of the
cities. New Yorkers lament that prostitutes have caused a
deterioration of Times Square; Hollywood merchants claim
their area has become known as a hookers' paradise; offi-
cials everywhere point an accusing finger at court decisions
that they say have made it almost impossible to control pros-
titution effectively. Boston has attempted to segregate vice
areas of the city into red zones, while in Salt Lake City,
police have taken to arresting the clients of prostitutes
known as johns. In other cities cooperating news media pub-
lish the names of men picked up for soliciting prostitutes.
Periodic vice raids are used to round up prostitutes in many
cities, but in spite of these and other efforts, prostitution
continues to flourish. Some officials have urged that prosti-
tution be legalized as it is in Germany and other parts of
Europe, which means not so much legalization as regula-
tion. In the United States, Nevada has more or less adopted
such a plan. But what works in Nevada might not work in
other areas of the country, since those areas of the state
where prostitution is legalized are very small towns, the in-
habitants of which are fewer than those in a block of urban
apartment buildings.
Today's brothel is likely to be right around the corner
in the form of a massage parlor, a nude photo club, an escort
service, dial-a-massage, a sauna house or some other thinly
disguised market for sexual services. The motive for the
prostitute's client appears to remain much the same: the
craving for sexual variety, perverse gratification and inter-
course free of entangling commitments. As for the prosti-
tute herself, the evidence suggests that now, as in the past,
her activity is voluntary, representing for some a consider-
able range of advantages including flexible work hours, con-
tact with diverse people of power and influence, a height-
ened sense of activity, and the opportunity to make
substantial sums of money.

A B r i e f H i s t o r y of P r o s t i t u t i o n
In ancient Greece the lowest prostitutes were street walkers
and brothel inmates. Far above both were the hetaerae, who
were distinguished by being educated in the arts and by
serving only the wealthy and powerful. They provided enter-
tainment and intellectual companionship, as well as sexual
gratification. The hetaerae, drawn from the population,
compensated for the fact that wives and daughters were not
permitted to entertain, go outside the home, or acquire an
education. In fact, Demosthenes summed it up when he
said, "Man has the hetaerae for erotic enjoyments, girl-
friends for daily use, and wives to bring up children and to
be faithful housewives."
Similarly, Japan until very recently had three classes
of women outside of respectable family life: the joro in
brothels, the jogoku or unlicensed prostitutes on the streets
or in bath houses, and the geisha or dancing girls. Trained
in dancing, singing and other methods of entertaining
guests in tea houses, geisha girls were an indispensable ad-
junct to Japanese entertainment. However, not all of them
were open to prostitution, and if they were, they were selec-
tive in their customers.
In modern society about all that is left of prostitution
is the commercial form, in which one party uses sex for
pleasure, the other for money. To tie intercourse to sheer
pleasure is to divorce it from both reproduction and from
any sentimental social relationship. This does not mean that
people feel as strongly about prostitution as they do about
thieves or arsonists. A recent survey conducted by McCall's
magazine found that only 7 percent of the respondents said
they would clear the streets of prostitutes if they had the
chance. The distaste for prostitution is manifested mainly
by reluctance to have a bordello in the neighborhood, or to
be identified with the business or its personnel. Otherwise,
it does not seem to bother the general population.

Causes o f P r o s t i t u t i o n
If prostitution offends the moral principles of people, why
does it exist? And, if it denigrates women, how does it re-
cruit its members? To explain prostitution in economic
terms is begging the question. Since prostitution is defined
as selling sexual favors, one might say that retail merchan-
dising has economic causes.
Prostitution arises from the demand for the prosti-
tute's services. This need for service arises out of the regula-
tion of sex itself and the limited liability of a commercial
sexual relationship. If the customer has money, he can ob-
tain satisfaction with no further obligations. In the case of
a female prostitute, the only clients that she needs to pro-
cure are men. A john, or client of the prostitute, does not
become enmeshed in courtship, friendship or marriage.
Let's face it, every male finds himself sometimes, and some
males find themselves most of the time, in circumstances
where sexual release through more reputable channels is
impossible.
Our experiences have shown that, of course, not all
males visit prostitutes, but those who do depend on them
for a major portion of their sexual activity. About 30 percent
of men have never had contact with prostitutes. Of the rest,
most have had only one or two experiences. No more than
15 to 20 percent of men visit a prostitute more often than
a few times a year. This still leaves a substantial portion of
the adult male population. For them, what does prostitution
provide that other outlets cannot?
The primary advantage of prostitution for these men
is its impartiality, impersonality and economy. Attracting
and seducing a woman can be costly. By its effort to contain
sexual acts in a meaningful and enduring social relationship,
society creates advantages for prostitution. For less than
the cost of a single date with a girl who is not a prostitute,
a male can engage in whatever sexual fantasies he desires
with a prostitute. Additionally, the impersonality of prosti-
tution makes it particularly suited to strangers. The man
away from his wife or circle of girlfriends cannot, in a short
time, count on seducing a respectable woman. Also, since
certain sexual acts are considered immoral for wives and
sweethearts, the prostitute has an advantage. That is, the
prostitute, as long as she gets paid, will usually perform 99.9
percent of the services requested by the client. The demand
for prostitution will not be eliminated or seriously altered
by a change in the economic system. The underlying basis
for the demand is inherent in human society.

Prostitute Categories
Now it's time to put on our hot pants, lipstick and high-
heeled shoes and check out the action on the streets.
The Legalized Brothel
In some countries prostitution is a legal, commercial
venture. Brothels are licensed and regulated by the govern-
ment in an effort to minimize the negative impacts of vene-
real disease and organized crime. These two side effects of
prostitution are generally present in situations where prosti-
tution is illegal.
In Nevada, the practice of legalized brothels is ac-
cepted in almost all of the seventeen counties of the state.
The Mustang Ranch, one of the fifty or more licensed
brothels is the largest, doing an annual business of between
S3 and $5 million. The house rules are not too strict. Drugs
and sloppy clothes are not allowed. There are between
twenty and twenty-five women working in this establish-
ment at any given time. They are regularly inspected by
physicians and are required to hang their health certificates
on the walls. The average income of the women is approxi-
mately $600 to $700 per week, of which $300 goes for room
and board. The women are free to accept or reject custom-
ers for any reason. They may, for example, discriminate
against clients from different ethnic backgrounds. Whether
or not the legal brothel has resulted in an increase or de-
crease in venereal disease or AIDS cannot be established.
It has, however, decreased the activity of the police and
courts in Nevada in dealing with prostitution.
The Illegal Brothel
In the United States most brothels that operate do so
illegally. A common scene in New York City is luxurious
east-side apartment houses, catering to New York and visit-
ing businessmen.
Sue, the proprietor of the brothel, receives a minimum
of $700 every few days tax free. A trick, which is a sexual
act, costs anywhere from $35 to $75 and the money is di-
vided equally with the hooker. Sue calls the hookers or pros-
titutes to work when they are needed. Sue is perpetually
looking for new women to satisfy her customers. She usually
hears of women from other hookers.
Sue considers her apartment a clean, respectable place
that gentlemanly clientele can frequent. She avoids trouble-
some or aging hookers. Troublesome hookers are those who
give out their home telephone numbers, which Sue consid-
ers stealing, and those who don't share the money that they
have made from a client.
To prevent detection by the police, Sue pays off the
doorman and the building manager, and the owners of the
building seem oblivious as long as the rent is paid. Every
two or three years, Sue changes her apartment and her tele-
phone number, in the process dropping a few johns, who
either showed violent tendencies or didn't pay enough
money. However, Sue must always stay on the right side
of the clients she drops because they can always go to the
police.
The Street Walker
In many respects the street walker is at the bottom of
the prostitution hierarchy. The most common scene that
we have experienced is a young girl, either a runaway or a
throwaway child, who drifts to the big city after leaving her
home. She could be running away from sexual abuse by
family members or friends. She often works as a waitress or
clerk and for a time lives a rootless, disorganized life with-
out friends and without ties to any social institutions. Dur-
ing this crucial period she is dissatisfied, tense, bitter and
bewildered. She is far away from home and away from
things that, even though they were uncomfortable, were her
mainstay in her younger years. Her shiftless, alienated way
of life brings her into contact with established prostitutes,
who on the surface seem to be very well off and have good
job security. Her morals are at a low, and she hungers for
some kind of friendship and affection, so she will accept
dates arranged for her by a prostitute friend or the prosti-
tute's pimp.
What is a very common sight in New York City is for
the pimps to be wandering around the Port Authority Ter-
minal, which is the largest bus terminal in the United States.
As these runaway or throwaway children enter the Port Au-
thority, they are overwhelmed by the vastness and are easy
to spot as new to the area. The pimps, who are male, fre-
quent the coffee shops and rest areas of the Port Authority
and attempt to strike up a conversation with these run-
aways. They offer them shelter for the night or possibly a
part-time job or some money. They want to build up a
friendship so that they can have this girl dependent on
them. Some of them may actually come right out and re-
quest that they work for them as prostitutes. However, most
of them state that they would be willing to have these
women work as escorts for young men who need affection
and attention at social events.
These young women, unaware of city life, enter into
these relationships with pimps not knowing that it is really a
front for hardcore prostitution. Eventually, the pimp moves
from friendship to initiating the girl into prostitution either
by raping the girl himself, or having multiple members of
his circle of pimps rape her repeatedly until she gets accus-
tomed to rough sex.
The curious relationship between prostitutes and
pimps, to whom they turn over a large part of their earnings,
is seen as an attempt by the women to overcome loneliness
and form a relationship with someone who seems to be
lower than themselves.
Once the girl is degraded into this type of life, she
becomes the pimp's servant and works for him where and
when he tells her to. In return for these services, the pimp
will give the girl free room and board, and, of course, she
must have sex with him or any of his friends whenever they
desire. Eventually, some street walkers will move from one
pimp to another. However, if she moves, it will be a tremen-
dous distance away from the original pimp, as pimps have
certain territories and zones. The girl is only supplied with
free room and board as long as she works for the pimp.
Should she decide to go out on her own, she must work
even harder to make money to have a place to stay. Some
women who successfully do go on their own and escape
from the pimps will arrange to live with other hookers so
that they can share the rent.
Eventually, street walkers will move outside lawful so-
ciety when they get arrested. After a time, the arrest experi-
ence is viewed as a simple occupational hazard, much like
overstock in a regular retail business. Eventually, the prosti-
tute becomes stabilized in her calling, finds her friends al-
most exclusively in this type of industry, and acquires a rec-
ognized status as a prostitute.
The Call Girl
In the upper echelons of prostitution is the call girl
who usually maintains her own apartment and keeps a book,
in which she lists the names and phone numbers of her
clients. Generally, she responds to calls, although she may
also use her book of names to solicit. Most of the call girls
encountered by the police have a deep hatred for men, dem-
onstrate a pattern of lesbianism, and have very strong sui-
cidal tendencies. Additionally, most of these women are
characterized by having been rejected by both parents or
they have a history of being sexually abused, sometimes
prostitution is used as an attempt to replace affection that
was missing during childhood.
In the 1990s, the typical call girl is equipped not only
with a residence from which to operate, but also with a
beeper and cellular phone. The call girl usually escalates to
this level after working for a short time as a street walker.
However, it should be noted that not many street walkers
make it to call girl status. It takes a special kind of woman
to elevate herself, gain enough money to go out on her own,
and operate this way without being attached to pimps who
dominate her. In effect, they have the same spirit of entre-
preneurship as do persons who open up their own business.
The call girls we have encountered have ranged from
the street walker who elevated herself to housewives and
college students desiring to make extra money. Recently
there was a call girl arrested in Princeton, New Jersey. It
was later discovered that she was a police officer's wife op-
erating out of her home. She had an appointment booked
for one particular businessman when another steady client
requested the exact same time. After she accidently di-
vulged the name of the first client to the second client, there
was an altercation involving these two gentlemen, which
they both ultimately reported to the police. Of course, nei-
ther gentleman disclosed that they were clients of the
woman, they simply stated that they had information that
she was a prostitute. The police officer, who worked the
four to twelve shift, never knew that his wife was out of the
house, as every time he called her she answered the phone.
She programmed her home phone to forward calls to her
cellular phone so that she could pick up the phone wherever
she went. She was home during the day when her husband
was there but, while he was out on patrol, she was cruising
the streets also, in a different type of business.
Massage Parlors
The massage parlor has come to be regarded as a type
of illegal brothel and is often located within the neighbor-
hood shopping district. Massage parlors are usually rela-
tively inconspicuous. There's not much publicity or adver-
tisement, and the outer facade of the building is not very
ostentatious or enticing to the casual shopper. Frequently,
these massage parlors advertise through small classified ads
in local papers.
Police employ a method called the duken to close down
massage parlors. The duken entails having a plainclothes
police detective accost an unsuspecting victim about to en-
ter the parlor. The officer will say something like, "We know
who you are and what you are doing here, would you like
your wife to find out about it?" Out of fear, the victim will
introduce the officer to the employees of the massage parlor
as a friend of his who wishes their services.
Once the detective gains entry, he plays the part of the
customer coming in for the first time. The detective cannot
carry a gun, identification cards, handcuffs or any object
that would make the owner or employees of the massage
parlor suspicious. Like the other patrons the officer then
receives a massage.
Smart prostitution houses always tell their clients to
go into a room, remove all their clothes, and wait for their
girl. This is because most police departments will not allow
their officers to remove their underwear when investigating
houses of prostitution. And of course these prostitutes know
all about this!
At no time may the detective suggest anything of a
sexual nature to the masseuse. There must only be solicita-
tion on the woman's part. The masseuse might attempt to
sexually arouse the client while massaging his genitals, but
at this point there is absolutely no cause for arrest. As an
enticement to get involved in sexual intercourse or oral sex
many of these massage parlors will have televisions showing
X-rated movies. Only after the masseuse suggests sexual
intercourse or oral sex and states a monetary fee is she liable
for arrest. At this time the officer may make an arrest even
though no actual intercourse or oral sex took place. Mas-
sage parlors usually employ only a few women as masseuses.
Approximately two women do the massaging and soliciting.
Their ages range from the mid-twenties to the mid-forties.
The Drug Addict Prostitute
A relatively recent addition to the world of prostitu-
tion, particularly in the United States, is the drug-addicted
prostitute. Like the male drug addict, the female addict
finds that after a time she must turn to an illegal activity to
support her expensive drug habit. As males turn to burglary
and robbery, women turn to prostitution.
A large percentage of street walkers are addicts. Call
girls are not generally addicted. It is estimated that 90 per-
cent of female addicts engage in prostitution at one time or
another because prostitution is a quick source of the funds
necessary to support their drug habit and the drug habits
of the men with whom they live.
The Male Prostitute
In many large cities, particularly New York, male pros-
titutes have emerged as street walkers competing not for
the needs of women seeking men, of course, but for the
needs of men seeking men. Unfortunately, these male street
walkers are young boys called chicken hawks, sometimes as
young as nine or ten. These boys are the throwaway, dispos-
able children of this century. Faced with no way to survive
other than selling their bodies, they cruise the streets along
with other prostitutes.
You would expect that these boys would appeal to
strange, deviant, weird, homosexual men, however, the op-
posite is true. As with regular female prostitution, many of
the clients for these chicken hawks themselves are married
and have children. It is a type of sexual fantasy that they,
of course, cannot get within their homes unless they sexually
abuse the male children.
Many male prostitutes dress to appeal to both types of
johns. Males cross-dress as transvestites and appear to be
female. Depending on the type of john, many of the boys
are beaten or sometimes killed when the male client finds
out in the middle of the sex act that the prostitute is actually
male. These types of injury occur hundreds of times in New
York City alone over the course of a year.
Prostitution and the Mob
Prostitution is and has always been one of the steady money
makers of organized crime. However, the mob has denied
any major interest in this field ever since 1936 when Charles
"Lucky" Luciano was sent to prison by a crusading New
York district attorney. Luciano's operation included over
two hundred prostitutes housed in at least ten, four to six
bedroom apartments. His neighborhood managers directed
the women to locations where the business was heavier than
usual on certain nights. His bookers transported them be-
tween neighborhoods to achieve the consumer appeal in-
herent in new faces of prostitutes. His collectors and house-
keepers made certain the prostitutes turned over the agreed
percentage of their earnings. His icemen paid off in the
police stations and court rooms. His strong arm men or en-
forcers maintained discipline and settled disputes. His bail-
bondsmen, attorneys and physicians administered to the
needs of the enterprise handling an arrest or ill health. A
linen firm, which Lucky had an interest in, supplied the
towels and sheets for his prostitution business.
This enterprise was the first concrete example of wrap-
around organized crime operations and it made a great deal
of money. However, it was also a landmark case that re-
vealed the need to insulate top men from the operations of
a criminal enterprise. Luciano, who did not participate in
the daily workings of any prostitution house, was convicted
because detectives unearthed evidence of his operation of
the business and used the theory of conspiracy to prove his
guilt.
It should be noted that prostitutes are frequently ex-
cellent informants and are very cooperative in dealing with
the police. Since they work on the street, they witness many
things and encounter many men over the course of their
employment. It is also a bit surprising to find how many
men will tell these women secrets they have never told any-
body in their life. These prostitutes, like bartenders, are
willing to listen and they keep an ear out for anything that
may be able to help them should they be arrested by the
police.
In the movies and television some prostitutes are por-
trayed as warm, loving individuals who can be saved by the
right man. This is totally fictional. Our experiences have
found that most prostitutes have, by the age of eighteen,
lived more in their lives than most women forty to fifty years
of age. They are hardnosed businesswomen, know the
streets, and know how to survive. Prostitutes are not easily
swayed by emotion and sentiment. The longer a prostitute
works the streets, the more she realizes that is all she will
ever be.
Whether in brothels or in the streets, under bridges or
in automobiles, prostitution remains at the bottom of the
social scale. It is the most convenient sexual outlet for le-
gions of strangers, perverts and physically repulsive people
in our midst. It performs a role that no other institution
performs. In view of the conditions and the continued his-
torical presence of prostitution, it is highly unlikely that it
will ever be eliminated as a vice in society.
There are several organizations actively engaged in ef-
forts to protect prostitutes: COYOTE in San Francisco,
which stands for Calling Off Your Old Tired Ethics; PONY,
which stands for the Prostitutes of New York; PUMA,
which stands for the Prostitutes Union of Massachusetts;
and ASP, the Association of Seattle Prostitutes. Prostitu-
tion appears to be developing a higher profile.
Armed robbery occurs when a person commits a theft with
the following elements: The offender uses force, causes in-
jury to the victim, or puts the victim in fear of bodily injury
by threats.

The P r o f e s s i o n a l A r m e d R o b b e r
The professional robber spends his career striving for ulti-
mate success the big payoff, a robbery that will earn him
enough money so he can live comfortably for the rest of his
life. Professional robbers look for establishments with large
sums of money readily at hand and a low risk of getting
caught. The professional, because he takes pride in his
work, will also expect a certain amount of publicity associ-
ated with his robbery.
Planning
Let's walk through the steps. Prior to the Christmas
holidays, the diamond exchanges stock up anticipating holi-
day gift-giving. A professional may try to find an insider in
the diamond exchange to help him plan the robbery. The
insider may be a salesperson who will be paid off for his
cooperation. Sometimes, the robber himself may apply for
a position and work at the diamond exchange while he plans
the robbery. This puts the robber in the best position to
learn critical information.
The following questions will need to be answered:
What type of security system do they have? Does it have a
perimeter alarm? Are there panic buttons? Is there video
surveillance? What is the best time to rob the store, that is
when will the most merchandise and cash be on hand?
Where is the merchandise kept and how it is secured? Is it
in a locked safe? Is the safe only open at certain times of the
day? Is there more than one place where the merchandise is
kept?
He will have to know what other security arrangements
are on the premises, such as armed or unarmed security
personnel, and the location and the efficiency of the local
police department. Are there additional armed or unarmed
security block watchers? The professional will also, through
his insiders, determine how many customers are likely to be
in the store at different times. He will also formulate a plan
to fence the stolen merchandise into money.
Through his research, the professional determines that
Friday morning will be the best time to commit his robbery.
Very few, if any, customers will be in the store. The display
cases will be stocked in anticipation of upcoming payday
and weekend sales. He has determined how to deal with all
security devices and the best time to hit the premises to
avoid the police.
The professional has decided to have one partner to
commit the robbery. To gain entry, he will have to be let in
through the front door designed to control access to the
store. He and his assistant will be well dressed so entry is
no problem.
The Checklist
What separates the amateur from the professional is
not only training but preparation. Most nonprofessional
robbers commit crimes of opportunity. The professional
studies the crime and arranges a checklist of equipment
needed, weapons that will be carried, and a schedule for
the robbery. The checklist will encompass the entire opera-
tion, and is used to assure that all participants know their
assignments.
Armed robberies require equipment, including small
caliber weapons or handguns, which are easy to conceal.
Other equipment may include masks; gloves, either vinyl or
leather; and collapsible bags for carrying the merchandise.
Plastic heavy-duty trash bags are ideal because they are
strong enough to carry the proceeds yet can be concealed
easily.
One factor that is often overlooked is the climate and
weather conditions. A group of men walking down the
street with jackets and gloves in the middle of summer is
quite obvious.
Getting in and Getting Out
The entry may be made by our robbers all at once or one
at a time. If they enter one at a time, the first person in will
be the advance scout, who will survey the activity inside. This
initial survey verifies that there need be no changes to the
original plan and that no additional security has been added.
If the scout feels that the time is not right, he will alert the
other team members with a prearranged gesture.
Once inside, they may or may not cover their faces
with masks, but will almost always use gloves to evade iden-
tification through fingerprints left at the scene.
Employees and any customers are rounded up and
contained. The robbers pull out heavy-duty plastic trash
bags and assault the display cases. Prior scouting showed
where the expensive jewelry is kept, and this is collected
first. If there is time, they will make an attempt to enter
and loot the safe. Upon completion of the robbery, our rob-
bers will exit the same door they entered, and flee the area.
 Transportation to and from the premises is important.
Stolen vehicles may be used and dropped off at locations
where the stolen items and team members will be trans-
ferred. It is not uncommon to have team members separate
to avoid detection. The loot will be held by one person, if
possible. In their flight, they will change vehicles frequently,
along with directions of travel. They may even hand off the
loot to make the chance of apprehension less likely. A meet-
ing will be arranged where the loot will be sorted out and
divided. In other cases, one person may be responsible for
fencing the goods and dividing the monies received.

Bank Robberies
A professional bank robber can be a single person or a gang.
The gang usually controls the crowd inside the bank while
one member cleans out the teller stations. This is especially
important in large banks where the customer traffic is sub-
stantial. Bank robbers know that the easy money is in the
teller stations, all the action will take place in this area.
Bank robbers rarely enter vaults because of the time that it
takes.
The lone robber is more likely to go to just one teller.
In a small branch he may attempt more than one teller by
starting at the middle teller or one close to a wall, so that
he can be sure no one sends a silent alarm. He can also
watch for other customers or security personnel entering
the bank.
Lone robbers sometimes reveal their weapons; others
just make threats, verbally or by writing demands on the
back of a deposit slip. The robber will walk up to a teller
and request the money be placed in a bag that he supplies.
After receiving his money, he will promptly leave and follow
steps to escape in a manner similar to the one used by our
jewel thief.
The professional, through surveillance, will examine
exit routes, parking for his escape vehicle, video surveillance
locations, and the location of the bank's teller stations.
Once inside, he will make use of this surveillance by acting
familiar with the surroundings. For example, he won't be
startled when greeted at the door.
When robbing a bank, it is important to carry the
proper equipment. In most single-person robberies, a
weapon will not be shown, but the robber will threaten its
use. The bag used to carry the money can be a plastic shop-
ping bag, a gym bag or even coat pockets.
When several people are robbing a bank, weapons will
be shown immediately to control the customers in case one
is an off-duty police officer or other professional. If one
of the customers plans to stop the robbery, he will know
immediately that customers along with employees may be
injured in the crossfire.
Once inside, the customers will be collected or asked
to lie on the floor. Certain members of the group will either
stand at the door, collect the money from the tellers, or
watch over customers and employees. They will exit and
leave much like the criminals we described in the jewelry
store heist.

Remember back a few years ago, when banks installed

bulletproof glass to separate the teller from the cus-
tomer? In some banks it would reach the ceiling to pre-
vent a would-be robber from attempting to leap over the
glass into the teller areas while robbing the bank. Walk
into a bank today and see if this security method is still
used. In most cases, they have been removed, because
desperate armed robbers would demand money from the
tellers by threatening to kill customers. This security
measure, even though it may have been a good idea, did
not work for the banking industry.

A r m o r e d Car R o b b e r i e s
Although strip-mall banking and check cashing stores are
convenient, they are also more vulnerable, and a secure
method of transporting monies to and from them is critical.
The trend toward establishing these banks greatly increased
the use of armored cars and the amounts of money they
carry.
Professional and amateur robbers both know that
more money will be obtained from the robbery of an ar-
mored car than a bank. An armored car could carry several
million dollars while making its rounds, which is obviously
enticing to a bank robber who is very lucky if he makes
ten to fifteen thousand dollars by cleaning out the teller
stations.
Because armored car robberies are more risky and
much harder to carry out, since the guards are well-trained
and well-armed, armored car robberies are usually more
violent. The same pre-planning takes place and will include
some type of insider information about the arrival of the
vehicle and the first and last stops it makes. The first and
last stops are important because, if the armored vehicle is
delivering money, it will contain more at the beginning of
the route. If the armored vehicle is making cash pickups,
then the more pickups, the more money it will contain at
the end of the route. Robbers want to attack when the ar-
mored car will have the most money.
The armored car usually contains three armed person-
nel the driver, a passenger up front, and one person in the
back of the truck. Their weaponry will vary with the cargo
and the location of their clients. All guards carry some type
of handgun and will be in uniform. Military-style shotguns
or rifles may or may not be carried.
The procedures of the guards are usually consistent.
The driver may or may not exit the vehicle depending on
the amount of the transfer. If it is a substantial amount, the
driver will stand between the rear of the armored car and
the establishment. The passenger will transport the money,
and the person sitting in the bed of the truck will remain
inside and only open the door at the time of transfer. This
arrangement insures that the only loss is the amount re-
moved for transfer and not the complete contents of the
truck. Robbers know that an armored car is most vulnerable
during the transfer of money, so this is when they strike.
Their weapons will be out and at the ready, so there is usu-
ally an exchange of gunfire. Innocent civilians are highly
likely to become victims of the gunfire.
While stealing money during transfer will net an ar-
mored car robber more than a bank robber, the most money
will be obtained by stopping the vehicle before deliveries or
after pickups. One way to stop the truck is by stopping a
van or moving truck suddenly in front of the armored vehi-
cle. The sliding rear door opens and a number of armed
personnel exit. The criminals shoot at the driver's and pas-
senger's front windows, which softens the bulletproof glass,
so that bullets can be fired through it to kill the driver and
passenger. Then, the rest of the gang informs the guard in
the back of the truck that they will blow up the vehicle if
the doors are not opened.
Armored car robbers have a backup team of additional
personnel standing by with another vehicle, just in case they
are needed to stop the police. These thieves will flee in the
same manner as other armed robbers.

The A m a t e u r
The amateur robber may come from any walk of life and
may have many motivations. He may be a hard-working in-
dividual who, in circumstances beyond his control, decides
he needs quick cash. He could also be a person with a sub-
stance addiction that has grown beyond his financial means.
He may be a teenager or gangbanger looking for excite-
ment, power and easy money.
Amateur robbers will commit their crimes during sea-
sons when it is customary to have large amounts of money
in the house, such as Christmas or during summer vacation.
They find targets by observing victims who wear expensive
jewelry or clothing. They might even follow an expensive
vehicle back to a residence, and then as the owners are
getting out, force the victims at gun point into their home
and rob them. These robbers carry materials, such as hand-
cuffs, rope and duct tape, which will be used to secure the
victims. But, we have worked only a lew armed robberies
in which the victims were bound.
The Down-on-His-Luck'er
Let's first discuss how a first-time, middle-class, down-
on-his-luck armed robber goes about committing a crime.
He goes to a neighborhood where no one knows him and
looks for a convenience store, gas station, small bank or
department store. There will be little or no planning, and a
short time before the robbery, he will try to motivate himself
to commit the crime. He enters the location, and if he has
a gun, he will show it. If not, he will threaten that he has
one, and demand the money.
He will be noticeably nervous, which may include voice
and body trembling and profuse sweating. The attendant
being robbed will notice strong, foul-smelling body odor and
bad breath due to additional perspiration and a dry mouth
brought on by fear and/or excitement. Sometimes, alcohol
or a narcotic may be used for a calming effect or to obtain
the nerve to commit the crime.
If the employee refuses to turn over any money, which
he should not do, the amateur will usually flee without the
money. If he gets his money, he leaves and in most cases
returns home. For his getaway, he will park a few blocks
away in his own vehicle and walk to and from the robbery.
If he used a weapon, he will usually make no attempt to rid
himself of it.
The Juvenile
When a teenager or young adult robs a location, it will
most likely be in or near his neighborhood. This is because
young adults rarely have their own transportation. He will
usually be assisted by his friends, and there may be some
pre-planning prior to the robbery. However, the pre-plan-
ning is sketchy at best and basically includes only the loca-
tion and who will approach the employee. They may scout
just prior to the robbery to determine the number of people
in the store. Juveniles almost always arm themselves with a
cheap small caliber handgun.
Juvenile robbers are often quite violent and their
crimes usually end with serious injury or death to either the
victim or the robber. The robber may be killed if the owner
has a weapon available. If a customer walks into the store
during the robbery, or if shooting breaks out during the
robbery, the customer will become involved. This type of
robbery is very fast, and the loot is usually just the money
in the cash register. Getaway is on foot or in a stolen vehicle
parked and left running just outside the door.
The Desperate Drug Addict
The substance abuser, because of his need for quick
money, will usually perform a robbery of opportunity when
the circumstances are right. These circumstances may in-
clude an elderly person walking alone, a person walking in
a secluded area, or a intoxicated victim. He will brandish
or threaten to have a knife or a gun and demand the money.
He leaves the scene on foot.
Gang-Bangers
Gang members, mostly of Asian gangs, place a promi-
nent businessman under surveillance and follow him home
or to his place of business. When the businessman is alone,
they approach him and become violent and abusive towards
him. They tie him up and demand money. Asians have a
custom of keeping money in their homes and places of busi-
ness during certain holidays for luck. These are ideal times
for the armed robbers to strike. If this robbery takes place
in the victim's home, they will threaten any other family
members present with bodily harm if they refuse to comply
with their demands. Some Asian businessmen do not use
banks the way they should, and large amounts of cash will
be available for thieves.
Other armed robberies by young aggressive street
gangs often become violent. The street people will demand
money at gunpoint or threaten to cut you with their knife.
There have even been cases where a person was threatened
with an IV syringe filled with HIV-positive blood. The vic-
tim is followed until he reaches a secluded location where
the robbery can take place undetected. Common choices
include exit and entry stairways to subways, subway plat-
forms in the late night or early morning hours, deserted
streets, or vehicles waiting for a light to change.
Automatic Teller Robberies
Since automatic teller machines (ATMs) are available
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they are a ready
source of quick cash for armed robbers. Most bank ma-
chines have a daily withdrawal limit, so the stolen amounts
are relatively small, $500 or less.
The armed robber will stake out an isolated ATM ma-
chine in the late evening or early morning hours. When the
victim arrives, he is evaluated for his vulnerabilities. By this
we mean is the victim alone, big in stature, or one who
looks like he may put up a struggle? Is there traffic on the
sidewalks and streets?
Some ATMs are enclosed with a self-locking door. The
robber will wait until the victim starts his transaction, and
by either pre-rigging the door, defeating the locking mecha-
nism, or having a magnetic card himself, gain entry into the
ATM area.
The victim will then be forced at gunpoint or knife
point to withdraw the entire transaction limit, which will be
stolen by our thief. The thief will then exit on foot from the
scene. There have also been reported cases where the victim
was kidnapped and held for a period of time so that a daily
routine of stealing can be achieved.
Taxis
Taxi drivers are one of the primary, if not the main,
victims of armed robbery. They have ready cash from fares,
and neither taxi nor driver is equipped with any form of
personal protection.
Some taxis have limited protection from semi-bullet-
proof glass between the driver's and passenger's compart-
ment, but this is easily defeated. Most drivers will not use
the air conditioner to save money on fuel, so they leave the
driver's side window open. When the robber gets out, he
walks over to the driver and places either a knife or a gun
against the victim and demands the money.
Another method is to be picked up in a good section
of the city and be taken as a fare to a secluded area where
the taxi driver is then held up for his money. The robber
will leave the vehicle on foot and flee the scene. The more
violent robbers shoot and kill the taxi driver.
The method of armed robbery is amateurish and the
choice of weapons of amateur robbers is slight, but the bru-
tality and violence is great. The weapons of choice are those
that are available. Saturday Night Specials or large razors
and knives are often used.
Check Cashing Outlets
Check cashing outlets are found in low-income areas
where people, for a variety of reasons, are unable to cash
their checks at an ordinary bank. The amount of money
in these places varies, but in certain periods, such as the
beginning of the month when people receive their public
assistance or Social Security check, a lot of cash is necessary
to meet the demands. Patrons using these services pay a
fee, usually a percentage of the value of the check or money
order being cashed.
Check cashing outlets are generally well secured with
strong bullet stops and pry-resistant glass partitions and
walls. To gain entry into the teller station or vault, a series
of steps must be taken. These security procedures are much
like those taken by an astronaut returning from space. The
criminal must go through a series of air locks, but, unlike
those used by an astronaut, these security locks are de-
signed to keep unauthorized persons from entering. They
must pass through one door, which will be secured behind
them, and after that door is secured, a visual check through
a surveillance camera is made. Only authorized personnel
will be let through the inside door.
These businesses are extremely difficult, but most
profitable, to hold up. Because of the difficulties, successful
robberies are aided by employee incompetency or inside
assistance. The inside assistant will be to in some way defeat
security devices, perhaps by leaving doors unlocked. The
incompetency might be when an employee is hungry for his
lunch, fails to follow security procedures, and instead of
going from one secured location to another, he just leaves
all doors open.
The method used to rob these stores involves first sur-
veying the habits of the employees. Once this is done it may
simply be a matter of standing by when the lunch boy makes
his delivery.

Female A r m e d Robbers
Female armed robbers, both professional and amateur, are
rare. The professional female armed robber is more likely
to be part of a gang, and will handle inside surveillance or
act as a distraction during the actual holdup.
Some distractions we know of are having a young child
fall and cry uncontrollably, having loud arguments between
a customer and a salesperson, pretending not to speak En-
glish, and intimidating employees. Other methods include
undressing or even urinating on the floor. This last works
extremely well in crowded businesses and banks, especially
in suburban areas where people are more easily shocked.
While these diversion tactics are going on, the other associ-
ates grab key personnel and force them to turn over the
merchandise or money.
Women are particularly good at surveillance, because
who is going to question an attractive shopper?
Terrorist groups attempting to raise their funds
through armed robbery may also use women as part of their
gang.
The amateur female armed robber is most often a
prostitute who robs her john or who is a desperate substance
abuser. The prostitute will have the john undress and get
ready for the sex act. Once the john is undressed, the prosti-
tute uses a knife or razor to rob him. His clothes are thrown
out of a window or taken with her when she leaves, to slow
the john if he plans to alert the authorities. All in all, the
female armed robber is not as common as you might think
from watching movies.
When a person attempts to gain entry into a building for
the purpose of removing items from a safe, they will be
faced with a number of obstacles. The more valuable the
prize, the more precautions the owner will take in securing
it. These precautions are designed to deter entry rather
than secure the premises. Overcoming these obstacles sepa-
rates the professional from the amateur. Any building, safe
or property that has security measures, no matter how well
designed, will not keep a motivated, well-trained individual
from entering.

Surveillance
When the burglar chooses his target, he first conducts a
survey of the premises, much like the armed robbers. This
survey may be conducted by an insider or it will be done
Fences and Gales
High barbed-wire fences and gates are a common de-
terrent, and they can be diabolically constructed to foil
the most ingenious thief. They may be doubled, that is,
two fences set a certain distance apart. The barbed wire
can be placed in a number of ways. Traditional barbed
wire, which contains wire strands and, every few inches,
a twist of sharpened wire, is used mainly at the top of the
fencing in layers of three. If this layer is perpendicular
to the fence itself, this is designed both to keep people
in and to keep people out. If this layer is facing away
from the property at a 45 degree angle, it is designed to
stop people from climbing onto the property. If this
barbed wire is angled toward the property at a 45 degree
angle, it is designed to keep people in the property.
Fencing can be placed side by side. The first fence
with the barbed-wire layering is either perpendicular or
at a 45 degree angle facing in. The second fencing has its
barbed-wire layer facing at a 45 degree angle toward the
first fence. If the perpetrator gets through the first fence,
he will be trapped between the first and the second fence.
This is also known as a security pattern. Not only does
this help to keep people out, but it will lock them in for
easy apprehension.
If someone wants to ensure additional security for his
property, he will use what is called razor wire, or ribbon
wire. This is the wire that you see while watching the
evening news: United Nations troops are standing at a
checkpoint and on the ground you will see curly wire.
This wire has a razor-sharp section. The theory behind
this wire is that once you come in contact with it, it entan-
gles you in such a way as to hold you in place. The more
you struggle to free yourself, the more entangled you be-
come. This wire will also cause severe injury. Razor wire
is mainly used either on the ground, attached to the
fence, or mounted on top of the fence and gate areas
either perpendicular or at a 45 degree angle facing in
toward or out away from the property.
 The gates for these fences could be secured with ei-
ther a chain and padlock or a lock requiring a key. An-
other mechanism for securing gates is a motor designed
to open the gate either in or out or to slide it alongside
the fence.

through deception. This deception is achieved by disguising

oneself as a maintenance person or utility company worker.
Large companies are always looking for maintenance em-
ployees because of the high turnover, so it may be fairly
easy to gain access into a building to conduct a surveillance.
Uniforms, including police uniforms, are easily ob-
tained through mail order catalogs and supply houses. Iden-
tification can either be forged or stolen and in some cases,
purchased out of catalogs.
Security, no matter how tight, is always less during
working hours. This was evident with the World Trade Cen-
ter bombing. Mauro is a master at testing security proce-
dures. He can talk his way through just about any circum-
stance and has never been denied access to any location.
This includes military bases, law enforcement agencies,
businesses, and into areas for employees only without iden-
tifying himself as law enforcement.
Another method of obtaining needed information on
the security procedures of a building is to act as a prospec-
tive customer and question an employee about security pro-
cedures while acting concerned for your security. The sales-
person will be glad to brag to you more than enough
information to complete your task.
The whole purpose of this surveillance procedure, no
matter how it is carried out, is to see if the difficulties in-
volved justify the rewards.
Upon completing the surveillance, the burglar will de-
cide what alarms there are, and how to disarm or avoid
them. He will research into the mechanics of the alarms
and practice on them so no mistakes will be made during
the actual job.
Getting Inside the Property
On television and in movies, burglars dress in dark clothing
and wear sneakers. This is actually pretty accurate because
running and jumping is easier while wearing sneakers and
the soft soles generate less noise while walking.
The burglar carries a tool kit with the tools he feels he
may need to gain entry. Some of these tools will include
long, strong, flathead screwdrivers for prying, steel pry bars,
flashlights, chisels, small mallets, jacks, hacksaws, battery-
powered drills and saws. Gloves are always worn and vary
from medical latex to leather workman gloves. Ski masks
are optional. More enterprising burglars will carry police
scanners to monitor local police communications and a por-
table radio handset for communications from inside to a
lookout.
If the gate is secured by a chain and padlock, the bur-
glar will just cut the chain or the padlock itself with bolt
cutters. This whole procedure will take under ten seconds.
The only problem with gated areas is that they are usually
well lit, can be seen from the road, and may be guarded.
An easier method is to simply take the bolt cutters to
a secluded part along the fence and snip the soft metal hold-
ers that secure the fencing to the fence post. This accom-
plishes two things: entry can be gained by simply lifting the
bottom of the fence up and sliding under and there are no
visible signs that the fence has been tampered with unless
you are standing inches away from the fence post.

Getting Inside the Building

Our clever burglar has entered through the fencing and has
observed that the doors are steel-reinforced with locks de-
signed to slow entry into the premises. The windows are
protected by steel bars. Some protective bars are designed
with an interior bar that spins. If one were to saw through
them, you would reach the inner bar that will spin as the
saw blade comes in contact with it, making it impossible to
cut completely through the bar.
 We have seen resourceful thieves use building jacks or
vehicle jacks to open the bars. The jacks are placed between
the bars and, by activating the jack, the bars are bent apart
so that one could squeeze through. Another method of de-
feating these bars is to pry them off the window itself or
attack and remove a piece of the building where the bars
are attached.
The burglar will use a method of entry that will be
easiest and have the least chance of detection. Climbing on
a roof, cutting a small hole, and lowering oneself down not
only defeats perimeter alarms but gives a view of the room
before entering. Another method is breaking through an
outside wall to gain entry.
The whole premise of gates, fences, barbed wire, steel-
reinforced doors and windows is not to keep people from
getting in but to slow them down and give the law enforce-
ment community a chance for apprehension.
If the merchandise inside the building warrants it,
there will be armed guards on a twenty-four hour basis.
Guards vary from a night watchman with a flashlight who
walks through the building hourly to an armed patrol watch.
In some cases, guard dogs will be used in addition to human
guards or alone inside the buildings and in the gated area.
These guard dogs sometimes have their voice boxes re-
moved to stop them from barking so that they can more
easily sneak up on the intruder. However, someone entering
a building can disable guard dogs by sedating, poisoning, or
simply shooting them.
Inside the Building
Once inside the building, the burglar will encounter a num-
ber of obstacles: Additional fencing and gates, brick and
concrete barriers, and additional steel reinforced doors.
The doors would most likely have alarms along with motion
detectors protecting the hallways.
Alarm Systems
A major obstacle the burglar must overcome is the
means of detection. Detection is accomplished through vi-
sual sightings by guards, special alarm systems to show the
presence of an entry, and video systems that may be manned
or recorded for viewing at a later date.
The only problem with video recording is that the thief
may locate and remove the videotape before leaving. This
is true in both manned and unmanned video stations. Some-
times the recorders are not turned on or the tapes are used
over and over and the quality of the recording is poor, mak-
ing video systems useless to the owner.
Alarms can be activated through audio transmission,
by touch or vibration, light or heat sensitivity, and motion
within the room. Transmission of the alarm can be sent over
regular telephone wires or by cellular transmission. These
outgoing alarm signals can be transferred to a central alarm
center, the area police department or the business owner's
home.
Once the alarm is activated, an audio alarm may or
may not sound in the building. In some of the cases we have
worked on, we observed that if there was an audio alarm
present, it was disconnected prior to activation, or smashed
from its stand shortly after sounding.
Alarm systems are powered by an alternating cur-
rentthe electricity that comes from the electric pole that
powers your home. Good alarm systems usually have a di-
rect current or battery-powered backup. The backup is an
additional protection from power loss. This power loss can
be from a problem at the electric company, from storms
causing black outs, or from the burglar cutting the power
off to the building. As soon as the AC power is discon-
nected, the DC power activates, continuing the protection.
Educated thieves know that one method of disabling
an alarm is to discontinue electricity to the building which
they intend to burglarize. Cutting the electrical wiring lead-
ing into the building is one method of doing this, but it is
quite dangerous. A safer and more effective way is to re-
move the electric meter from the meter box. This is accom-
plished by cutting the banding wire, undoing the locking
clip, removing the band and pulling the meter straight to-
ward you to disconnect the power.
 You still have to worry about the DC backup system
but once you gain entry into the building and locate the
alarm system, you can then cut the wires coming from the
batteries to disable it. By disconnecting the batteries, the
alarm has no power to operate. Most good alarm systems
not only have an audible alarm, whether it is a siren or a
bell, but they will also have the ability to call an outside
agency to alert them to the intrusion. One way to stop the
call to an agency is to find the telephone lines going into
the building and cut them with a wire cutter. But if the
building has a cellular backup, the call will still go out.
The merchandise our burglar is seeking will then be
located in a safe. This safe may or may not be hidden from
view. In some cases, there will be two safes, one in plain
view and the other hidden. The reason for this is the thief
will spend most of his time attempting to open the first safe
and may be happy with the few trinkets located inside.
This two-safe method is a growing trend in residential
buildings of wealthy people. We recently heard a story
where a wealthy businessman had two safes installed in his
home. One his wife was aware of and the other she was not.
Unknown to the husband, the wife had installed a safe for
herself. The reason for all this security is simple, the ama-
teur will not attempt entry and the professional will be de-
layed and hopefully apprehended.

Safecracking
Safecracking is the glamorous profession among thieves. A
lot of training and experience is needed to accomplish this
task. We have personally been to quite a few burglaries
where safes have been involved. In our combined law en-
forcement careers dealing with all types of safes from the
small personal safe to large bank vaults, we have never run
across a safe that has been cracked or opened without force.
Don't get us wrong. It does happen, but in all the safes that
we have worked on, brute force was used to open them.
Very rarely do you hear about a safe being opened by some-
one turning the combination dialunless it was an inside
job and they knew the combination of the lock.
The outside surface of a safe is one of the most difficult
from which to obtain any type of latent fingerprint impres-
sions. The safe manufacturer coats the outside surface with
a material that makes them more secure, but makes our job
a lot harder. This coating is either a wrinkled surface paint
or the metal itself is indented. Safe industry people tell us
they do this because it makes the outside of the safe more
durable to nicks and scratches.
The first and easiest way to gain entry into a safe is, if
the safe is small enough, to remove it from the premises
where it can be worked on without worry of detection. Safes
are designed to be placed in floors, walls and vaults. In
vault types, it may be easier to gain entry by attacking the
perimeter walls rather than the door of the safe. You would
be surprised at how much time and expertise that goes into
the vault door only to have the walls of the safe built of
simple wallboard and 2 x4s. This often happens in strip
mall banks.
If you are going to attempt to gain entry by unlocking
the safe, you will need to take with you a number of tools.
You will need a heavy bag, preferably canvas or nylon to
carry the tools. You will need flashlights to light the way,
at least one that is the kind that you wear around your head
to keep your hands free. Chisels, pry bars and hammers are
also needed to assist you in forcing your way to your goal.
Screwdrivers, needle-nosed pliers, battery-powered drills
and saws will also be needed. A set of lock picking tools
may also come in handy.
One tool for our high-tech thieves will be an amplifier
microphone, which is placed on the safe door near the dial.
By turning the dial left and then right or left depending on
the safe, you can hear distinctive clicks as the inner mecha-
nisms are engaged. These clicks are counted and translated
into the numbers on the dial and then the safe can be
opened.
Drilling the lock is another alternative. This is accom-
plished by first locating where the bolt hits home. You will
use your amplifying microphone and open and close the
handle quickly while moving the microphone around to de-
termine where the bolt is located. You drill in this location
and with any luck, the safe will open.
This bolt area on modern safes has reinforcement
plates where a drill will not penetrate. One method of deal-
ing with this problem is by preheating the area with a torch,
letting it cool down, drilling a while and then heating the
area again. Repeat this process until entry is gained.
When all else fails you may have to punch the safe.
This method consists of striking the dial on the safe door
hard with a large hammer to tear this dial off. Once you
have done this your next step is to take a steel hole punch
and try to punch out the center spindle. In some cases, this
will allow the safe to open.
High-speed saws or grinders with carbon blades can
be used to cut around or through locking mechanisms. Acet-
ylene torches can also be used to cut into the safe, but care
must be taken so as not to destroy the contents of the safe.
You may have realized that all this banging, sawing
and drilling will make a lot of noise, so care must be taken
to secure a location where the noise will not be heard and
reported to the police. We have never come across any
methods of sound suppression which is why the location of
the theft is important. For example, you are not going to
force open a safe on a main residential street in the sum-
mertime with all the windows of neighboring houses
opened.
The safe door is the strongest point of a small safe.
By turning a small safe upside down, you can often use a
sledgehammer and chisel or a pick and axe and, by brute
force, smash a hole into the bottom of the safe.
If you drill a small hole in one corner of the safe door,
thereby missing all of the extra anti-theft protection, you
may be able to peel back the layer of steel exposing any
locking mechanisms. This peeling is accomplished with a
pry bar, chisel and hammer.
To make certain that the safe contains valuable items,
you may first want to go on a scouting expedition. This is
accomplished by drilling a small hole into one of the walls
of the safe and inserting a small video camera with a light
unit to illuminate the contents of the safe.
Some safes contain additional security devices, such as
alarms or so-called bait packs. Bait packs are designed to
explode and release a tear gas and dye stain when you re-
move them. The tear gas is used to slow the getaway and
the dye stain is to contaminate the valuables as well as mark
the safecracker. This dye stain cannot be washed off the
proceeds and will remain on a person for quite a while.
As we stated earlier, most of the safes we have en-
countered were opened by sheer force. The amateur will
spend a great deal of time attacking the hinges on the door
to gain entry. This attempt is totally useless because the
locking bars that go through the safe door into the safe
walls maintain the seal and integrity of the door. The only
function of the hinges is to hold the door onto the safe when
the door is opened or closed.
We believe that a criminal feels it is a lot easier to
perform an armed robbery than to go through all the trouble
and physical labor required to open a safe.
Our criminal, after going through one hell of an ex-
hausting night, is resting comfortably in his own bed with
the proceeds safely tucked underneath the mattress. The
next thing he realizes is the police crashing through his door
and arresting him. You ask how they got him so quickly?
Well, he left his wallet at the scene and because he was so
exhausted with all that physical labor, he forgot it.

Lockpicking
Picking a lock is not as easy as it looks on television and in
the movies. While it is true that one can open some door
locks with a credit card, most locks are much more complex.
The common locks found in doors, cars, desks, filing cabi-
nets and some small safes have what are known as pin tum-
bler locks. These locks offer a medium level of security pro-
tection.
Pin tumbler locks contain a series of small pins. These
are the tumblers, held in place by other pins, which are
called drivers, and the drivers are held in place by a series
of springs. When the key for that lock is inserted, all the
tumblers are driven to a certain point. This point allows the
key to turn and the lock to unlock. The better the lock, the
higher degree of tolerance that is needed between the key
and the lock contacts. The degree of tolerance is how snugly
the key must rest against the tumblers.
Pin tumbler locks are ones that can be picked. But a
good portion of the time, the locks are stronger than the
door, and therefore the door will be smashed to gain entry.
On doors that are installed improperly, that is, with hinges
exposed, the hinge pins will be removed, and the door will
then be opened from the hinge side.
Lock experts, both legitimate and criminal, state that
lockpickers must have a certain degree of dexterity. If you
are clumsy and don't work well with your fingers, you will
never become a lockpicker. To pick a lock one must prac-
tice, practice and practice some more. Well-made key locks
require more talent than key locks that are found on desk
and file cabinets.
One practices this craft by purchasing or, better yet,
stealing the locks. Once these locks are obtained, our crooks
practice until they get it right. When they are proficient, a
door lock can be picked in as little as seven seconds. The
whole key to this is putting just the right amount of pressure
on the tumblers.
Before we describe how locks are picked, let's give you
an inside tip on what burglars do to give them more time
to escape when you arrive home a little earlier than
planned. They place small pieces of broken toothpicks in
the keyhole after they enter. The reason for this is your key
will not fit into the lock, so you cannot enter your home.
The noise that you make trying to open your door will alert
our burglar that you are home.
If you were to pick a lock trying to maintain a degree
of silence, you would use two items. The first item is a pick,
which comes in a variety of sizes and shapes and is made
from spring steel. Picks are either homemade or can be
ordered from a catalog. The purchased picks are a lot better
because they give you more variety. Picks are straight,
curved or have different shapes cut into them. Obviously,
the greater variety of picks, the greater versatility in the
locks you can pick.
The second tool is a tension tool. The tension tool also
comes in a variety of shapes and is made from spring steel.
The tool is used to control pressure on the lock during the
whole procedure. The tension tool will be turned in the
direction the lock opens. We all have seen our special secret
agent in the movies picking a lock with just one simple tool.
This cannot be done, you need both the pick and tension
tool. The tension tool is sometimes referred to as a tension
wrench. This tension wrench keeps tension on the cylinder
and assists in turning it to open the lock.
To review, the pick is slid into the key hole. It is manip-
ulated to raise the pins to their opening point. The tension
tool is directly below the pick and keeps pressure on the
pins while rotating. The pressure that the tension tool
causes holds the pins in their open position. The lockpicker
feels the vibration of the pins in his fingers and hears a
distinctive click.
Other items can be substituted for the pick and tension
tool. The tension tool can be made from a strong steel wire
with the tip bent slightly or perhaps a small jeweler's flat-
head screwdriver, again with the tip altered. The pick can
be made with strong safety pins with the end sanded
smooth. The one good thing about using a safety pin pick is
that it could be easily hidden and looks harmless if located.
There are techniques to pick just about any lock made
today. Locks that have been picked can be identified after
examination at a forensics laboratory.
Some locks cannot be opened by picking. These locks
have what is known as high-security pin tumblers. These pin
tumblers are designed to discourage lockpicking. When you
are attempting to open the lock these pin tumblers feel like
they are at the open position when they are nowhere near
that position.
Only the most skilled professional can open high-secu-
rity locks by picking. Another method of entry requires tak-
ing a small high-speed hand drill and drilling a small hole
just above the center of the tumblers. When this has been
accomplished, the center of the lock will turn and the lock
will open.
Another method similar to using a credit card, is to
slip a small bent piece of wire through an opening in the
door and attempt to unlock the lock from the inside. This
is mainly done when you have a key entry on the outside of
the door and a turning knob on the inside of the door. A
thief can look through a window on the door, guide the bent
wire onto the knob and turn it to open the lock. This is also
a technique used to gain entry into vehicles.
A small screwdriver or pry bar can be inserted into the
small opening between the frame and the door, and with
minimal force, the door can be popped open. If the lock is
an inexpensive one, two simple paper clips, opened and
bent at 45 degree angles, can be placed horizontally one
above the other. Jiggling the paper clips and turning the
knob at the same time may be all that is needed to open
the door.
One of the most widely used writer's gimmicks is the
impression method. A person holds a piece of moldable wax
or clay and the key is pressed into this material, forming an
impression of the key, which can be easily duplicated. An
important item to remember is that a key has two sides and
both sides must have impressions.
When it comes to padlocks, the easiest method is just
to cut the shackle, which is the curved part, with a bolt
cutter.
Some interesting points to remember in lockpicking
are that after you pick the lock open, you have to return it
to normal or the key may not work properly which would
cause detection. To determine which way to turn the ten-
sion tool, try it in one direction and, if that doesn't work,
just use the tension tool in the opposite direction.
If your lockpicking is not going as swiftly as you would
like, and your hands start to cramp, your picking will be
unsuccessful. Take a moment to relax your hands and then
go back to it.
 If one does not possess the skill to pick locks, there
are pick guns. They come in all shapes and sizes and are
quite expensive. They are hard to conceal on your person
and the law enforcement community will recognize them
immediately.
To use a pick gun, you insert it into the key hole and
lightly squeeze the trigger. The gun applies pressure in the
same way as the tension tool and aligns the pins so that they
are in the open position. Some pick guns will turn the knob,
others you have to turn with a tension tool.
If all else fails, you can have your burglars break a
window, reach inside and unlock the door.
Leaders of narcotic trafficking networks are people who
conspire with others to become the administrator or finan-
cier of an organization designed to profit from the unlawful
manufacture, transport and distribution of a controlled sub-
stance. A drug lord can head up a major cartel employing
hundreds of people or a small group. Smuggling is con-
ducted worldwide, and they will use any scheme necessary
to import their products.
Let's go into detail about the different types of drugs
that are currently being smuggled.

Cocaine
In the 1800s, cocaine was legal in the United States. It was
treated much like caffeine is today, and was used in a num-
ber of food products. The Harrison Anti-Narcotics Act,
passed by Congress in 1914, outlawed possession of cocaine.
Cocaine increased in popularity in the United States during
the 1970s. At that time people believed that cocaine was
not addictive, and this misconception made it the drug of
choice.
Cocaine is grown in Colombia, Peru and other moun-
tainous countries with suitable climates. Cocaine is ex-
tracted from the alkaloid of the leaves of the small coca
bush. Cocaine increases energy and creates a feeling of con-
fidence in the user; it is also a stimulant and will promote
weight loss. These properties made cocaine popular with
the Jet Set of the 1970s.
Drug smugglers remove the alkaloid through a series
of dangerous procedures involving highly flammable chemi-
cals. The end product is purified, which makes cocaine in-
credibly potent. Just about all exported cocaine is manufac-
tured in the same area where it is grown. Cocaine is usually
sold in grams or ounces packaged in small plastic bags. Ad-
ditives such as inositol, baking soda and milk sugar are
mixed with the cocaine until it is about fifty to seventy-five
percent pure. Cocaine is cut this way to stretch the amount
sold, bringing in more money.
Freebasing
Late in the 1970s and early in the 1980s, freebasing
became the method of consumption of cocaine. Freebasing
cocaine increases the potency of the drug. To freebase co-
caine, the user mixes baking soda or sodium bicarbonate
with the cocaine to remove the additives placed in it. The
remaining cocaine is then placed into a pipe and a steady
heat source from an open flame is applied to the pipe. This
produces a vapor that is inhaled through the pipe directly
into the lungs, causing an almost instantaneous reaction.
Crack
In the late 1980s, a new and more potent form of co-
caine appeared on the inner-city streets. Crack is stronger,
faster-acting and much cheaper than the powder form of
cocaine. A piece of crack, which sells for around five dollars,
is similar in shape and size to a peanut. Crack cocaine is
very addictive, and one ounce of powder cocaine can make
nearly 240 pieces of crack. Much like freebasing, crack is
smoked through a pipe. When inhaled, this high-dose drug
takes only seconds to show its effects. People using crack
report that they became addicted after the first use. Crack
is sold in small vials similar to perfume samplers. Crack is
not only very addictive, but because of its purity, is also very
toxic, and has a damaging effect on the nervous system.

Heroin
Heroin is once again increasing in popularity for two rea-
sons: The price has gone down and the supply is plentiful.
Heroin users feel that heroin is the safest of all the hard
narcotics. Heroin is sold in glassine bags known as dime
bags. A heroin addict can use as much as $600 a day in his
habit. These glassine bags will have a stamped trademark,
or legend, usually a name along with a picture. Some names
seen on the streets are Tombstone, 44 Magnum, TNT and
Minuteman. The heroin user will use these markings as a
sort of consumers' guide for his product.
Heroin is either injected with a syringe under the skin,
called skin popping, or directly into a vein, called mainlin-
ing. Smoking heroin is increasing in popularity because of
the AIDS epidemic and a desire to avoid track marks. Track
marks occur over time when the repetitive injections cause
ulcering and collapsed veins.
Speedballs
Speedballs are a mixture of crack and heroin, which is
generally smoked. Speedballs are like crack in many ways:
It is a very intense, but short-lived, high, usually less than
ten minutes.

Methamphetamine
The new kid on the block, which was first seen in Hawaii
and sold by Filipino gangs, is called Ice. Ice is basically crys-
tallized methamphetamine. Ice is almost 100 percent pure
and is more lethal and addictive than any other drug. Ice
resembles rock salt with different colors. These colors are
used to determine the quality; the clearer the color, the
better the quality. Ice is cheaper than cocaine or heroin and
the effects have been known to last up to twenty-four hours.
Ice, like crack, is very addictive and dangerous. Methods of
ingestion are smoking, snorting or injection. Ice is predomi-
nantly a West Coast drug and is not seen much on the East
Coast.

Designer Drugs
Designer drugs are manufactured to produce effects similar
to other narcotic drugs. Designer drugs can be injected,
smoked, snorted or come in a pill form. A person with a
chemistry background produces designer drugs in small
clandestine laboratories using no quality control. Some
popular designer drugs are Fentanyl Citrate, referred to as
China white, and Ecstasy, called Adam and XTC.

The O l d S t a n d b y s
Hallucinogens were prevalent in the 1960s and are gaining
popularity once again. LSD and PCP are two of the more
well-known ones. They both have a number of street names.
LSD is colorless and odorless, which makes it extremely
dangerous. Some street names are Blotter Acid, Microdot
and Orange Sunshine. PCP is a white crystal powder and
when manufactured poorly, it could be tan or brown. Some
street names for PCP are Angel Dust, Dust, Super Grass,
Killer Weed, and Rocket Fuel. Hallucinogens are ingested
by swallowing, and PCP is almost always smoked.
Marijuana was very popular during the 1960s and
1970s with the rock culture. It was widely used in the open.
Marijuana decreased in popularity in the 1980s but is in-
creasing in popularity once again. Marijuana is smoked ei-
ther out of a pipe or in cigarette form.
Asian Gangs
Opium is being grown in more places and the quality of
heroin is becoming more pure, so the demand for heroin in
the United States is increasing. Narcotics are smuggled in
containers transported on ships. Most products that are
shipped worldwide, are shipped in steel containers. But
U.S. Customs lacks the manpower to check each and every
container, so this is an ideal avenue for smuggling.
Asian gangs smuggle heroin by attaching a device to
the bottom of a ship so that it will not be found if the ship
is boarded by law enforcement authorities. Mother ships,
like those used during prohibition, set anchor in interna-
tional waters, small speed boats rendezvous with them, and
the cargo is transferred. People are smuggled from China
and other Asian countries to the United States in much the
same way.
Asian gangs conceal their heroin inside of other objects:
It may be inside cans of food, or stashed inside of statues, or
just about anywhere. These people can be very creative!
The southeast Asian gangs are based in the China-
towns of San Francisco and New York and mainly import
and supply the heroin known as China White. Sometimes
they are referred to as the Tongs, which was an organized
crime group formed in nineteenth-century China. Enforce-
ment is maintained by the Vietnamese gangs. The Asian
traffickers smuggle from either coast, but the majority of
the heroin is sold in the New York City area.
The Golden Triangle and Crescent
Because ports are open in the Middle East, the Golden
Crescent is once again in business. Heroin processed in Af-
ghanistan and Pakistan is finding its way through India, Iran
and eventually Turkey. This area is known as the Middle
Eastern heroin network, and some believe it is being run by
the Syrians.
The Golden Triangle includes Hong Kong, Singapore,
Laos, Burma, Taiwan and Thailand. Smuggling through
these ports is easy because of the vast imports the United
States receives from this area of the world.
The Asian region accounts for most of the narcotics
smuggling, with Europe being next and South America and
the Middle East at the end. Smuggling revenues are also
used to support military operations in developing countries.
For this reason, the never-ending supply of corrupt officials
seems to make narcotic activity thrive.
Jamaican Criminal Groups
Jamaican organized crime groups are often referred to as
posses. Like the Asian gangs, infiltration is next to impossi-
ble, because of the tight bonding and nationalities of the
members. The posses have two main sources of revenue:
narcotic smuggling and proficiency in providing false docu-
mentation. Posse groups are very violent and appreciate
high-power, high-capacity weaponry. To kill their enemies,
a single 9mm shot to the head or a drive-by shooting in a
public place is popular. Other forms of killing by posses are
disemboweling, mutilation and even beheading. Bodies are
disposed of by dumping in remote sites. It is common to
have a victim's body part sent to his family. Torture before
killing is also commonplace.
The Colombians generally supply the posses with their
merchandise. The posse flies the shipment by private air-
craft from Colombia onto one of ninety illegal landing strips
on the island of Jamaica. Jamaica is the ideal transfer point
because it is so close to South America and the United
States. All of these flights are arranged and cleared through
the officials of the countries the plane flies over.
When landing in Jamaica, time of day is not important.
The cargo is transferred from one plane to another, and the
plane will then fly to its final destination, either Florida or
Georgia to an unprotected landing strip. These planes are
packed so full with narcotics that the pilot is totally enclosed
and cannot exit the plane without first removing some of
his cargo.
Posses import small amounts of narcotics using couri-
ers and commercial airline flights. Young adults and fe-
males are popular couriers because they don't seem as sus-
picious. A female smuggler coming in from Jamaica once
used a dead infant to smuggle the drugsthe body was cut
open and the internal organs were removed and replaced
with cocaine. The woman was apprehended when a suspi-
cious crew member noticed the infant didn't move or cry.
Marijuana and cocaine are smuggled in hidden spaces in
carry-on luggage or body cavities. For larger loads, small
private planes are loaded on municipal airports within the
islands and transported to isolated landing strips in Florida.
Posses also use cruise ships and smaller private boats for
transportation.
 Upon arriving with the contraband in the United
States, posses usually lease vehicles, altered to sustain heavy
loads. Many of these vehicles have sun roofs, which are used
to fire weapons through when needed. Smuggling opera-
tions incorporate a caravan, using vehicles for transporta-
tion of the drugs and vehicles for protection, which carry
personnel and weaponry.
Jamaican posses, like the Asian gangs, go to great
lengths to protect their merchandise. All exits and en-
trances, windows and hallways of their strongholds are forti-
fied to repel rapid entry by the police or rival drug gangs.
These fortifications include hazardous traps, gunports and
hidden compartments to hide their merchandise and weap-
ons. The narcotic is not sold hand to hand, but through
small holes in the door of their headquarters. Posses use
money transfers, beepers and car telephones to conduct
their business.
The M o b
Traditional organized crime families such as La Cosa Nos-
tra are starting to expand into narcotics smuggling because
most of the older members, who refused to take part in drug
trafficking, are losing control due to assassinations and law
enforcement efforts. The younger members are more vio-
lent risktakers and are more willing to smuggle for the fast
money. La Cosa Nostra works out of the little Italy sections
of large cities, such as New York and Philadelphia.

Black Gangs
Black gangs are very structured, organized crime units. At
one time mostly located in Los Angeles County, over the
last few years, black street gangs have emerged in inner
cities throughout the United States. Currently, these gangs
are increasing their activities in the Midwest. At present
the narcotics they deal with are crack cocaine and phency-
clidine (PCP).
The organization has no formal structure, but gang-
bangers selected to control the organization are chosen for
several qualities. Physical appearance is important because
one has to be able, if necessary, to use force to control any
situation. A person's age is also important; the older the
person, the more mature he will be in handling everyday
problems. Arrest record and behavior also lead to a position
of leadership.
The age of these enterprising young men is early twen-
ties. As a gangbanger increases his fortune, he will tend not
to get involved with the daily comings and goings of the
gang. The gangbanger will support his gang by contributing
large sums of money, weapons and narcotics.
As new recruits or members, gangbangers gain respect
and power through behavior and displays of manhood, e.g.
being brave, trustworthy, taking the rap, and going to jail.
Recently, because of the money made through narcotics
trafficking, prestige in the gang can also be obtained by
making money in dealing drugs.
Gangs deal an enormous volume of drugs, which
makes it possible to sell them more cheaply than their com-
petition. Organized gangs are now dealing directly with the
main suppliers of narcotics and are buying large quantities
at one time. These purchases will be in the millions of dol-
lars, and yes, it's all cash. Gangbangers who sell drugs are
responsible for the narcotic itself and the money generated
from its sale. If the total dollars don't reflect the sales, the
gangbanger will suffer the consequences. The punishment
will be proportionate to the amount of the loss. If the loss
is large enough, it could get you killed.
Successful gangs purchase legitimate businesses to
launder money and in an attempt to present a positive
image to the community. They may even run for and win a
political office. Some of the businesses gangbangers pur-
chase are check cashing outlets, cellular phone and beeper
companies, electronics stores, elite car washing services and
parking garages. You can see how these types of businesses
could be used for narcotic trafficking.
If the police put the heat on, gangbangers will gener-
ally move locations rather than look for trouble. This proba-
bly explains the recent spread to more rural areas. The
gangs easily take over the new area, because they possess
the heavy equipment necessary to overpower their rivals.
They are heavily armed with assault weapons and semi-au-
tomatic handguns. They also have the muscle, the nerve,
and the reputation, so rival drug gangs rarely put up a fight.
If gang members are arrested, they hire expensive at-
torneys to represent them and to deluge the area law en-
forcement community with bogus complaints and lawsuits.

Turkish Smugglers
Like other organized crime groups, Turkish heroin traders
are almost all Turkish nationals. Turkish heroin smuggling
is a family-owned small business that smuggles to relatives
living in the United States. Turkish smugglers will also deal
to Italian crime families. Heroin smuggled through Europe
is transported in trucks that continue right into England.
The truck is then loaded onto ship.
Istanbul, where most of the international flights from
Turkey begin, is the center for the heroin smuggling. The
drugs will flow from Istanbul, to Italy, Spain, Germany and
the Baltic states. Because this flight pattern is well known,
heroin smugglers use connecting flights from these coun-
tries to countries not known for narcotics smuggling. The
Turkish smugglers hide their narcotics in hidden compart-
ments in their clothes, carry-on luggage, cargo shipments
and even mail. Sometimes, the narcotics will be smuggled
in products, such as rugs or clothing made in the region.
Smuggling also occurs through small fishing ships and
freighters. The small fishing vessels are accustomed to re-
porting to sea on a daily or weekly basis. While the small
ships are out to sea, they will meet up with the larger sea-
going freighters and the contraband will be transported
from one ship to the other. These small fishing vessels will
then return to shore and, either by disguising the contra-
band in their fish or by working during the night, remove
the contraband.
Countries i n Conflict
Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Lebanon, West Africa and
others all partially finance their struggles through the her-
oin trade. These countries, with the exception of Lebanon,
smuggle heroin through a network of nationals and family
members. Lebanon is assisted by Syria's.
Mexico is a substantial supplier of heroin used in the
United States. This heroin is sometimes referred to as black
tar, or brown tar, and is of very poor quality. Mexican smug-
glers bring their product across the border by truck or small
private airplanes. Occasionally, the heroin will be hidden in
products shipped to the United States.
S m u g g l i n g P e o p l e i n t o t h e U.S.
Whether it is for political or financial reasons or an attempt
to flee law enforcement officials, people wish to leave their
home country and emigrate to the United States. Asians,
South Americans, Haitians and Africans comprise the pri-
mary influx of illegal aliens.
Most Asian Chinese and Vietnamese smugglers
place large numbers of human cargo onto a small non-
seaworthy ship and set sail for the United States. Ships
have been located smuggling people to both coasts, and
once in the United States, the people turn to prostitution
and other illegal activities as a way to pay back the cost
of transportation.
Mexico and South America create another nightmare
for United States officials. Smugglers load up shipping
trucks and attempt to elude officials by using little-known
roads through the desert. This is very hazardous to the hu-
man cargo because they are sealed up in cramped quarters
without proper ventilation or away to take care of basic
human needs. The smugglers have been known to collect
their fees and leave their cargo in the desert or even kill
them.
Wealthy aliens seek out visas and other official papers
needed to gain entry into the United States. Once inside,
they reside in communities with their native people.
What type of people are shoplifting nowadays? Well, as you
might expect, there are a large number of junkies who sup-
port their habit by shoplifting, but large numbers of profes-
sionals, housewives, teenagers, and people who have never
before thought of stealing are turning to shoplifting.
As you may have guessed, the worse the economy and
the higher the unemployment, the more shoplifting there is.
Shoplifting is one of the few crimes directly related to the na-
tion's economy. If someone does not have the money to pay
for food because he's been laid off, he has to find a way to
come home with what he did the week before. Some people
will go out and get a job, some people will go out and get a
second job, some people will do neither: Their primary job
will be shoplifting. On the flip side, you would be surprised
to know that many shoplifters, when caught, have more than
enough money to pay for the items that they lifted.
Shoplifting: A Definition
Shoplifting is theft from the selling floor while a store
is open for business. If an item is stolen from a storeroom
in the back, that is burglary. If an employee steals merchan-
dise or money from the store, that is internal theft. If a
burglar or thief steals from another individual, that is rob-
bery. Shoplifting, then, is defined as larceny committed by
the public.

Reasons W h y A m a t e u r s L i f t
In many cases a shoplifter sees something he or she desires
greatly but does not have the money to buy. The items most
susceptible to being stolen are those that are new on the
market, because many people want the latest item, whether
it be clothing or a home entertainment system. But they
cannot afford it, so they shoplift it. They want to be cool,
now not later.
Some shoplifters are the type of people who are shy,
introverted and feel, in general, that no one respects them.
Stealing is a power trip to them. By stealing and walking
out of the store, they are in control of a situation. These
people easily crumble under pressure and will cooperate
fully when confronted with their crime.
Sad but true, many teenagers shoplift for one reason,
to get the attention they lack at home. But how, you may
ask, do they get attention if they are successful? Perhaps
they leave the merchandise in a conspicuous place at home,
hoping their parents will notice and question them about
it. But, most likely, they will continue to shoplift until they
are caught in the store. Mom or Dad must then come down
to the store and rescue them.
Some psychologists believe that teenage shoplifting is
a hostile act of defiance of authority and is an attempt to
get back at their parents for something. This behavior may
also be apparent in a husband or wife, who wishes to punish
a domineering spouse.
Some people steal because they received poor service
in the store. Many people who have been caught shoplifting
picked out an item and first waited in line twenty minutes
or more. After a long wait, they put the item in their bag
or under their arm and left, thinking to themselves, "Well,
if they want to make me wait twenty minutes to give them
my money, they can just try and get me to pay for it."
Many shoplifters are older persons who are forced to
live on a fixed income; their pension may have been enough
years ago, but with today's prices, the money just won't go
far. Trapped in this hopeless situation, they may turn to
shoplifting.
Another interesting character who shoplifts is the per-
son who does not actually need the item, who has plenty of
money to pay for it, but believe it or not, they feel like their
life is so boring they want to spice it up. Stealing is a game
to them. If they can make their way out of the store with
the item, they've won. It's kind of like chess, only sometimes
they're checkmated and get caught.
The people described above are average amateur
shoplifters. When they steal, they are usually alone and
won't take anything other than what they need or desire.

The P r o f e s s i o n a l S h o p l i f t e r
It doesn't take a whole lot of common sense to realize why
the professional shoplifter steals: It's his livelihood. He
makes his living by getting something for nothing. One thing
you must remember about the professional shoplifter is that
he or she seldom steals anything for himself. Whatever he
takes he will sell or fence on the street. Most of the time,
the professional shoplifter works by order. A person wants
something and sends out some feelers to friends; a certain
friend may reply that he can get it for him "wholesale."
Most of the time the person who originally requested the
item has no idea that his friend actually stole it.
Professional shoplifters are much like professional
burglars in that they know exactly where everything is in the
stores that they hit: security personnel, cameras, entrances
and exits. They may spend days or weeks learning the layout
of their targets. The professional shoplifter is experienced
at this business and gets the job done quickly and cleanly.
He often has a police record and may have organized crime
connections who supply bail and get him out of jail, when
needed.
The professional shoplifter will usually confine his ef-
forts to a store located in an urban area. Even though the
professional may not live in that area, he will pay to travel,
because his bounty is tremendous. The greater density of
people living in urban areas makes it much easier to unload
the merchandise.
The Ideal Target
The professional shoplifter looks for stores with ideal
conditions for theft. First, they select a medium to large
store heavily stocked with merchandise. They will not select
a small store because those are more easily supervised by
security cameras and personnel. Additionally, believe it or
not, a shoplifter likes a crowded store because there are
more people in the aisles and more diversions for security
personnel or clerks.
The worst thing a shoplifter can do is enter at the very
beginning or very end of the day, because that is when the
store is usually the least crowded and most filled with sales-
people. In the morning management is usually present and
the salespeople are milling around drinking coffee and wait-
ing for customers to come in. At the end of the day, there
is usually a manager on hand to count the take for the day,
lock the store, and set the alarm, while other personnel are
hanging around waiting for the store to close.
So, our perfect store is one that is medium to large
with lots of traffic and located located in an urban area.
Let's say the store is a K mart located in a major city in
northern New Jersey. A professional shoplifting team may
operate in many different ways.
The Diverson Technique
In the diversion technique the professional shoplifter,
who already has been in the store many times and knows
exactly where the merchandise is, will target a particular
piece of merchandise. Let's say, the new Flowbee hair cut-
ting systems, which are selling on television for $109.95. K.
mart has them in stock and on sale at $89.95. To take this
merchandise out of the store the shoplifting team must be
prepared to: (1) be able to steal the merchandise, and (2)
be able to take the merchandise out of the store without
being detected. Let's go down the aisle now, in K mart,
where the Flowbees are stacked and follow the team as they
operate, shall we?
The shoplifting team enters the store, usually sepa-
rately. They walk down the aisle several times before they
actually decide to perform the shoplifting. Sometimes a
shoplifting team will be unable to steal the item they came
for because of a clerk stocking merchandise or taking inven-
tory on that aisle. The shoplifters will not hang around in
the store, but will return at another time. Remember, these
are professionals who rely on particular merchandise to pay
their bills for the week, so they will not settle. If they came
in for the Flowbees, they will not settle for shoelaces just
to make a quick buck. They will come back at another time
for the desired merchandise.
Let's presume that shoplifters #1 and #2, a team, have
entered the store separately and have cased the aisle and
found that there is absolutely no reason why they cannot
steal the Flowbees today. Here is how they work the aisle:
1. Shoplifter # 1 will bring a bag or some other bulky item
into the store to carry the Flowbees out.
2. While shoplifter #1 is in the vicinity of the Flowbees,
shoplifter #2 will create a diversion several aisles
away.
3. There are so many diversions to choose from! Shop-
lifter #2 may shriek and fake a heart attack, so person-
nel from the store and other shoppers rush to her aid.
She may accidentally knock over a large display, and
again personnel from the store and other people will
come to see what exactly happened. Or, believe it or
not, shoplifter #2 may report to store personnel that
she has located a shoplifter in an aisle very far away
from shoplifter #1.
 But remember that shoplifters #1 and #2 already
know what the diversion is going to be, when it will
occur and their cues. So let's say that shoplifter #2
has decided to knock over a large display of Captain
Crunch, in aisle three, while the Flowbees are located
in aisle six. As shoplifter #2 knocks this over, many
people rush to see what happened. Shoplifter #1
quickly loads as many Flowbees into the shopping bag
as possible and exits the store.
4. There is absolutely no reason why shoplifters #1 and
#2 must leave the store together. So once shoplifter
#1 is out of the store, and shoplifter #2 can't be
charged with any crime, she can stay in the store as
long as she wants. What usually happens is that shop-
lifter # 2 stays in the store for a little while and scopes
another item to be stolen. Of course, the next time the
shoplifting team enters this particular store, they will
try another diversionary tactic. They will also switch
roles in the next shoplifting.
Nonstop Shop
Shoplifting teams simply walk up and down the aisles
with large bags. They know where the security cameras are
located from prior visits. They make sure that when they
pick up the item with one hand it is quickly placed into the
bag in front of them while the camera is behind them. You
must see it to believe it. Many shoplifters will pick up an
item from a shelf without breaking stride, place it in their
bag, and keep walking around the aisles. Keep in mind that
this is done while the shoplifter is walking quickly. They
don't stop in the aisle or pick up the merchandise to look
it over.
The quick pace prevents the security camera from
picking up what has transpired, as many of the cameras
have only black and white film of poor quality. Additionally,
the shoplifters are relying on people to monitor these cam-
eras in the store, and quite honestly, many security or cleri-
cal personnel do not monitor them. The cameras are
hooked up to a VCR with a time lapse, which takes three
to four second recordings from each camera in a zone.
The Drop-Off
Shoplifter # 1 will be standing in a certain area, which
is not in the area where the items will be stolen. Shoplifter
# 1 will be poised, however, looking at an item on a shelf
and will have a large bag, somewhat open so that items can
be easily placed into it, sitting on the floor. Shoplifter #2,
who entered the store separately, will walk around the store
and select the item that they both wish to steal. Shoplifter
#2 walks around the store until he or she walks right behind
shoplifter #1, and without breaking stride, drops that item
into shoplifter # l ' s bag. This can be accomplished several
different times at different locations in the store, because
as long as shoplifter # 1 and shoplifter # 2 are not in the
same location for any long period of time, they will not be
suspected of being together.
The Junkie Drug Addict Shoplifter
The junkie drug addict shoplifter steals to support his
drug habit. Junkies often work in pairs and sometimes in
groups of three or four. A known shoplifting offender will
appear in a store hoping to draw attention to himself, while
his partner, who is probably not known to the police or store
personnel, will actually make the lift. Once back on the
street, they split the take after selling the items.
The shoplifting drug addict is very particular about
what he or she steals. He knows that it is to his benefit to
take items that have a very high resale value on the street.
Each addict usually has his own specialty. In this way he
becomes known to fences as the person to contact when a
certain type of item is desired. Shirts and bras especially,
but almost any article of clothing, are favorite items with
junkies.
A very real and dangerous situation exists whenever
a shoplifting junkie enters a store to steal. He may be so
desperate for his next fix, and the need may make him so
oblivious, that he may act rashly and with total disregard
for other people's safety. The existence of the junkie shop-
lifter is one reason why all store personnel are warned to be
extremely cautious in stopping shoplifters. If the shoplifter
shows any sign of panic or of harming anybody, retail secu-
rity people usually will be very happy with identifying the
person and letting the police do the rest.
The Shoplifter Who Doesn't Shoplift
There he is, walking down the aisle. He's in the perfect
location: A crowded large retail store in a crowded urban
city. There he goes, turning down the aisle where all the
electronic accessories are sold. He looks at a pair of small
headphones that can easily be attached to a portable CD
player. He looks at them, looks around, brazenly puts them
underneath his jacket, and zips it up. He doesn't seem to
care if somebody sees him as he walks down the aisle and
turns the corner and heads right for the door! But just be-
fore he gets to the door, he takes the headphones from
underneath his jacket and throws them under one of those
large Rubbermaid recyclable trash cans on the bottom shelf
of the rack. Why did he do this? Because he thought at the
last minute he'd get caught? No, on the contrary, he wants
to get caught and he wants to be accused of shoplifting,
even though he has nothing in his hands. Why? Lawsuit.
If he convinces the store owner that he was falsely
detained, and the police officer who responds that he is
being falsely accused, he could get a couple of thousand
dollars minimum for his "pain and suffering" and humilia-
tion from being branded a shoplifter in front of all those
people.
This type of shoplifter is on the rise because with law-
suits it is more advantageous for the shoplifter to pretend
to take an item than to actually take it. These shoplifters
are very well rehearsed. They case the store, just like any
other professional, decide which item they want to pretend
to shoplift, and focus on that item when they enter the store.
But they also plan what is known as the ditch-off point, the
point in the store where they are going to get rid of the item
right before they get caught by the security personnel or an
employee. This type of shoplifter waits longer for the payoff,
but it's worth it!

Catching t h e S h o p l i f t e r
One of the common misconceptions is that a shoplifter has
to actually leave the store before he can be apprehended
by the police or security personnel. Many times the shop-
lifter feels that once he is past the doorway and out on the
street, he has a chance of outrunning anybody who might
choose to pursue him.
The laws vary in different states, but in many places
security personnel may legally stop a shoplifting suspect
once he leaves what is known as the paying area. The law
provides that a retail store or its employees has the right
to detain a suspected shoplifter. Detaining a person in a
reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time is not an
arrest and the shop will not be liable to the person detained.
However, the store must notify the local police department
as soon as possible.
In many states it is considered a theft to conceal goods
on one's person while still inside the store. The shoplifter
does not have to walk past the cash register to be eligible
for apprehension in this scenario. In some states it may also
be a crime to carry an item from one department to another
within the same store, such as picking up an item in men's
apparel and carrying it down to the lower level of the store
where electronics are sold.
To apprehend the shoplifter successfully, the accuser,
whether a security person or an employee of the store, has
to prove one of the following elements:
1. He must prove that the theft was intentional. Some-
times intent can be extremely difficult to prove. Take
the case of a woman shopper who slipped two scouring
pads into her purse instead of her shopping cart. When
the woman was prosecuted for shoplifting, her expla-
nation was that she did not want the scouring pads to
come in contact with the food in her cart, so she placed
 them in her purse as a safety precaution. When she
came to the checkout, she forgot to pay for them and
left with them in her purse. In this particular incident,
the court gave her the benefit of the doubt and dis-
missed the charges.
To prove intent, security people will allow the per-
son to leave the store before they actually confront
them. If the person passed the cash register without
paying for his merchandise, it is usually quite easy to
prove that the theft was intentional.
2. The shoplifter must actually have the article in his or
her possession. Sometimes the shoplifter thinks that
by dropping the item or throwing it away after he has
been detected he can get out of the situation. But that
is not the case if the store owner can prove that the
person had possession.
3. The merchandise in question must be proved to be
the property of the store and must be offered for sale.
Through price tag codes and perhaps inventory sheets,
the store owner can usually prove that the particular
merchandise actually came from his store. But these
things are not always as they seem.
Let's take this scenario: A store security person
observes an elderly woman look over a display of men's
clothing. After a short while she rolls up a pair of men's
trousers and hides them underneath her coat. Walking
behind the display she then moves the trousers from
under her coat to her shopping bag. She leaves the
store. The security person, thinking that he as a clear-
cut shoplifting case finds that no crime has been com-
mitted. Why? The lady could not speak or read any
English as she was from Czechoslovakia. The woman
wanted to buy her husband a pair of pants, just like
the ones he likes so much, so she took his favorite
pants to the store and compared them to make sure
that she bought him the right thing. As she cannot
speak or read English, she was too embarrassed to ask
for help. Of course, cases like this are unique, but you
 can see how it behooves merchants (and their shop-
pers) to be able to easily identify their merchandise.
4. It must be proved that the shoplifter intended to use
the stolen merchandise or to deprive the rightful
owner of its use. Again, this is usually not to hard to
prove, because if a person leaves the store or paying
area with the merchandise he has hidden and avoided
paying for, then of course he is depriving the rightful
owner of its use. Store owners are getting pretty tough
about shoplifting and the law is on their side.
White Collar Crime is a catch-all phrase encompassing a
variety of frauds, schemes and other nonviolent offenses.
With more personal and professional business now being
conducted electronically, it is easier for crooks to thrive at
our expense. Home and car alarms are no longer adequate
to protect us from becoming victims; these days we need
security for our computers and credit cards as well.
Computers play as basic a roll in crime as they do in
business and science. Computers are targets of thieves and
as instruments of swindlers and intruders. Hackers pride
themselves on gaining unauthorized access to data files.
Money launderers cover the trails of dirty money, and com-
mon thieves can steal millions without leaving their desks.
Their plundering can leave a crime scene empty of conven-
tional clues. Only recently have states begun to pass laws
that deal with computer crimes.
 The annual loss from computer crime each year in the
United States has been estimated as high as $100 billion.
The average loss per incident can be as high as $600,000
compared to the average loss of $19,000 from all other kinds
of thefts combined. The experts agree that computers will
be the single greatest crime generator that we face in the
future.

T e l e p h o n e s a n d Computers
Crimes involving the telecommunications industry have
grown, especially since the break-up of the AT&T system.
The Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA)
has estimated that phone companies lose as much as $500
million each year. The most common crime is the theft of
long-distance access codes.
Fraudulent Telemarketing
Fraudulent telemarketing costs the industry about
$200 million a year. You receive a card in the mail that says
you won a prize and you need to call a particular number
to claim it. These prizes can range anywhere from a new
car to a "diamond" pendant. You call the company to re-
deem your prize, and they ask for your credit card number.
You tell them that you want to know what prize you have
won. They tell you that before they can tell you what prize
you won, they need your credit card number to verify who
you are. That's a fallacy in a couple of ways: (1) your credit
card number isn't going to tell them who you are, only the
banks have that information and banks do not reveal this
information; and (2) most reputable companies do not do
business this way. Now, there is a giant legitimate telemar-
keting industry out there. The problem occurs when you
make the call or when you receive an unsolicited telephone
call trying to get you to buy anything from land to travel
packages, vitamins and water purification systems.
Travel. The travel industry, by and large, is legitimate and
well run, but there are problems with postcards that say
"you have won three days, four nights in Cancun or Florida
or New Orleans, call this number." What they are trying to
sell you is a $300 travel club membership. What they don't
tell you is that you probably have to pay for plane fare to
take a travel package to an exotic locale in the off-season.
Or, they overbooked the hotel so the room will not be as
nice as they described to you. They are going to sell you a
lot less than what you think you are buying.
Scams seem to go in a cycle. As law enforcement tries
to put these telemarketers out of business, they reappear
through a method called laundering. The telemarketers go
out to a small family business in a rural area that has come
across hard times. They approach the owners with a way of
bringing money into the business every week. All they want
to do, they say, is use the business' merchant number to
process credit card charges, and the telemarketers will give
them a percentage. This seems like an easy way to make a
couple thousand dollars a week, but when the people who
purchased these items start calling and complaining about
the product they received, the complaints fall back onto the
small business owner. Their business will fail, and the bank
will ultimately take the loss. We are starting to see more
and more of this operation in Florida, Texas, California and
the Midwest.
Computer Crimes
Individuals possessing modified personal ethics have
long been at work devising methods to use the computer to
satisfy greed. Money, physical assets, information, plans
and virtually every other aspect of business entrusted to a
computer have been stolen or otherwise criminally violated.
Losses can occur through criminal acts, malfunctions
and natural disasters. Fraud, espionage and sabotage can
be instigated by people, who may be employers, employees,
suppliers, customers or other outsiders. Their intent may
be personal gain or harm to the company. They may be
interested in obtaining assets or information to establish or
improve a competitive business. Finally, they may attempt
to blackmail management with threats to perform criminal
acts unless they are paid off.
 What are the objects of computer crime? What attracts
the criminal? Deliberate crimes against a company are al-
ways perpetrated for one or a combination of these three
reasons: financial gain, competitive advantage or harm to
the company.
Financial Fraud. Financial gains through fraud are perpe-
trated far more often than the other two. Many embezzlers
have the attitude that "the company can afford it" or "the
company will never miss it." The targets are money or prop-
erty such as the computer itself or the company's products,
services, information, marketing strategy or personnel re-
cords. Products and services are fenced for money, while
information, marketing strategy or personnel records are
sold to competitors or used for blackmail.
Payroll. Most sizable companies generate paychecks with
the computer. Generally the information necessary to com-
pute a payroll is stored in permanent computer files. This
exposes the company in three ways: (1) Money can be stolen
by manipulating the payroll; (2) These files can be sabo-
taged and are extremely costly to reconstruct; (3) Payroll
information may be stolen and used to the detriment of the
company.
Generally, tampering with payroll files can be made to
appear accidental. If the criminal is discovered, he will
plead accidental error and merely return the funds. Prop-
erly executed, the risk of prosecution in this type of theft is
minimal.
In one case of payroll manipulation, a company sub-
mitted their payroll to a data processing center with a sepa-
rate payroll report for each employee. The criminal simply
inserted extra payroll reports into the system and removed
them after the checks had been processed. Payroll checks
were mailed to the nonexistent employees at a post office
box from which the thief later retrieved them.
Accounts Receivable. The accounts receivable file can
very well be the lifeblood of a company. It provides a rea-
sonably complete listing of the company's customers, partic-
ularly the biggest ones, who would certainly be of interest
to competitors. But most importantly, in many companies,
the only records of money owed lies in the receivable file.
If this file suddenly disappeared, could it be regenerated?
Would the company be able to establish who owed what?
If bills could not be sent out for a month or two and much
of the monies owed were suddenly removed from the cash
flow pipeline, could the company survive? A loss such as
this could be fatal because the company is thrown on the
mercy of its customers. Some pay, some don't. Bankruptcy
is often the result.
Industrial Espionage. Computer crimes used to gain a
competitive advantage are known as industrial espionage.
Here the gain is the growth or increased profits of the com-
peting company. Espionage is the practice of spying to ob-
tain data or other information to gain unfair or dishonest
advantages.
Operations Information. The marketing and sales files
stored in a computer usually contain customer lists and sales
records as well as compensation information for sales per-
sonnel. They could provide customer information and also
reveal the salesmen who are most effective and the nature
of their compensation plan. All this information will be of
great interest to competitors.
Management information stored in a computer can
also reveal many aspects of long-range operational plan-
ning. There is increased use of gaming techniques to predict
the effectiveness of long-range options. The results of these
studies often include a detailed performance analysis of var-
ious departments or divisions of the company. Such plan-
ning and gaming could be invaluable information to a com-
petitor or supplier.
Sabotage. This is deliberate interference with the com-
pany's operation. Individuals perpetrating such crimes are
usually looking for personal satisfaction such as settling a
grudge rather than financial gain. Unions or activist groups
may use sabotage to intimidate or blackmail management.
Other activist groups may simply desire to draw public at-
tention to a company whose activities are considered objec-
tionable, unethical or illegal by these activists. An example
of the groups might be anti-abortionists, environmentalists
or animal rights activists.
Besides being susceptible to exploitation for financial
gain, a data processing system is also susceptible to mali-
cious damage, manipulation or destruction. The criminal
may be an individual who feels he has not been given a
fair deal by a company or it may be a striking labor union
embroiled in negotiations with management. The intent
here is to disrupt the company operations or blackmail the
company by threatening such destruction.
At one time, Dow Chemical Company was a target
of action groups opposing the Vietnam War. Its computer
center was invaded and seriously damaged. The attackers
had been thoroughly briefed; they understood the major
points of vulnerability, and proceeded to effectively attack
them. The cost to Dow was estimated at more than $1 mil-
lion.
Banks and Financial Institutions. A small miscalculation
of interest or service charges is generally not noticed by the
customer. Multiplied by a large number of accounts, this
small miscalculation can provide the criminal with a hand-
some annual bonus. From the institution's standpoint this
type of embezzlement seldom raises suspicion until enough
customers object. And, who really understands how that
stuff is calculated? Most of us take it for granted that the
interest on our bank statement is correct.
Borrowing funds, stocks or other assets is another form
of fraud. For example: An accountant works for a firm han-
dling a large corporation's account. He comes in over the
weekend and transfers $30 to $40 million of a company's
assets to his own personal account for a period of two days
and then transfers them back on Sunday night, so it will not
show up on Monday's posting. That employee can earn,
over the course of a weekend, several hundred thousand
dollars in interest.
We are aware of an individual who attempted this on
one occasion, and as fate would have it, Murphy's Law
ruled. While driving to the office late Sunday night to re-
deposit the money back into the company's account, he was
injured in a major accident and was hospitalized for three
weeks. Needless to say when he left the hospital he went
straight to the unemployment line!
Airline Reservation and Car Rental Systems. Since air-
line reservations and car rental systems rely heavily on data
communications, wiretapping and other similar techniques
can be used to obtain the information necessary to compro-
mise the system. A terminal connection will provide access
from which services can be obtained, after which the bills
(computer records) may become lost (assigned to fictitious
accounts) or fees reduced simply to nominal values. In the
case of computerized car rental systems, an entire car's re-
cords can be shuffled through the agency until its auditing
trail disappears. The entire car can then be made to disap-
pear as well. In the case of airlines, baggage records are
maintained on the main reservation file. Thus, it is possible
to create a fictitious piece of baggage and then submit a
claim for its loss.
Another computer scheme is electronic data capture.
The way it works is you use a modem to manually enter
credit card numbers. All you need is a list of numbers; you
don't even need the card. Twenty-four hours later you have
the money available to you and can draw out the money,
leave town, and the local bank is left holding the bag. The
bank wouldn't know about it until the customer gets his
statement with the charge on it, which could be as much as
forty-five days later, and reports that it's not their transac-
tion. The charge reverts to the issuing bank and they are
responsible for collecting the charge. This can cause serious
losses for the banks.
Another fraud where the telephone and credit card
are involved is telephone sex. Telephone sex operations are
different from 900 numbers. The 900 numbers are typically
billed by the telephone company. We're talking about a
long-distance number you can call, and the first thing they
want is a credit card number before they'll talk to you about
anything you want to talk about. It's a booming business in
different parts of the country. We get a lot of claims of fraud
on the credit card. Typically the person talks two or three
hours and then receives a bill with a charge of over $200.
The customer will dispute the bill. A lot of the fraud comes
when children get Mom and Dad's credit card number and
call these services. There are also group sex calls, where
people from different parts of the country, using their credit
cards, can call and talk about whatever they want.
A new scheme that has popped up involves a disgrun-
tled computer programmer who designs a program which
dials into a credit card center. The computer will run a
program designed to discover valid credit card numbers.
The program inputs a series of credit card numbers that
are submitted to the authorization center for a one dollar
authorization. The center authorizes only the valid num-
bers. The programmer can take valid numbers and use them
for other things, like ordering from catalogs.
Since mail order frauds can involve multiple states,
government agencies have become involved in the investiga-
tions, including the Secret Service, the U.S. Attorney Gen-
eral's Office, and the Postal Inspections Service.

Money Laundering
Basically, money laundering is the conversion of money
from a cash transaction system to a business transaction
system. Money laundering involves hiding the paper trail
that connects income to a person so he can evade the pay-
ment of taxes, avoid prosecution for federal, state or local
offenses, and prevent any forfeiture of illegally derived in-
come or assets.
It is estimated that $110 billion is laundered annually
in the United States. This figure increases to $300 billion
worldwide, which makes money laundering one of the most
profitable businesses in the world. Intelligence sources indi-
cate that a successful money laundering operation can laun-
der an estimated $100 million or more annually.
It is clear that money laundering continues to pose a
significant financial threat to the United States, particularly
the New York City metropolitan area. New York City faces
money laundering at all three stages of the process: place-
ment, layering and integration.
Placement Where drug money is directly used to found an
operation, such as a legitimate business.
Layering Where drug money is held or stockpiled while it is
waiting to be integrated.
Integration Where illegal drug money is mingled with legiti-
mate money, such as in a restaurant, gas station or con-
veneince store.
The nature of the New York City metropolitan area
offers unlimited opportunities for money laundering. New
York is one of the world's largest seaports, the financial
capital of the United States, contains two leading interna-
tional airports, diverse ethnic populations and a high de-
mand for illegal narcotics. The location of New York as a
major international gateway together with a highly diverse
international population make the city an especially attrac-
tive venue for money laundering.
New York City is the headquarters for six of the
world's largest financial institutions (three of which are the
influential securities markets), the five largest and most im-
portant commodities and futures exchanges, and eleven
clearinghouse banks. As an important financial center, New
York is in the center of enormous daily movements of
money through wire transfers. Industry estimates indicate
that between $900 billion and $1 trillion is moved daily
through the New York City wire transfer systems. Those
systems are believed to be a significant avenue for money
launderers to move their illicit source monies; moreover,
wire transfers have been increasingly used by money trans-
mittal houses. A study conducted by United States Customs
Service and New York Regional Intelligence Division per-
taining to wire transfers concludes that wire transfers will
continue to be a dominant means for money laundering and
fraud.
Narcotics trafficking continues to thrive in the New
York area. Statistics indicate that the New York City metro-
politan area is an extremely large consumer market for all
types of drugs. It is estimated that 50 percent of all heroin
users and 16.6 percent of all cocaine abusers are located
here. The ethnic diversity of New York City and the access
to international transportation provide smuggling organiza-
tions with a hub for their smuggling and distribution of nar-
cotics. With those activities comes the need to launder illic-
itly obtained proceeds.
Additional sources of information that may indicate
potential money laundering trends or activity are the crimi-
nal referral reports (CRR) and suspicious transaction re-
ports (STR). Bank officials file these forms with the govern-
ment when, in their judgment, an unusual or suspicious
transaction has taken place. A review of CRRs for the New
York area over the past months has revealed that money
laundering exists here.
The most common trend identified is structuring. Struc-
turing is the act of making frequent multiple cash deposits,
under $10,000, at one or more financial institutions with the
intent to avoid the STR reporting requirements. Another
red flag is when companies make deposits and/or withdraw-
als of unusually high sums of money not commensurate with
their usual earnings or deposit and withdrawal patterns.
Suspect wire transfer activity, primarily to overseas loca-
tions, has also been reported. It is not uncommon, especially
in the inner cities, to find concentrations of specific nation-
alities or ethnic groups in particular neighborhoods or com-
munities with ties to countries that export drugs.
Key Industries in Money Laundering Schemes
There are several industries that are particularly vul-
nerable to being used for money laundering activity. These
tend to be cash intensive businesses that disguise large sums
of illicit cash by mingling it with legitimate business pro-
ceeds. Bulk cash represents a problem for many criminals,
especially drug dealers. Financial institutions used include
banks, money transmitters and securities markets. The com-
mercial business being used for money laundering includes
the precious metals industry, travel agencies and both li-
censed and unlicensed couriers. Other cash intensive busi-
nesses such as liquor stores, automobile rental and conve-
nience stores are also being used.
High-dollar retail businesses, such as exclusive cloth-
iers, auto dealerships and high-volume cash businesses,
such as service stations and convenience stores, are particu-
larly vulnerable to use by money launderers. Criminals may
use these businesses as legitimate sources of income or em-
ployment to justify large sums of cash or conspicuous ma-
terial wealth. In some cases a seemingly legitimate business
can serve as a base from which to operate illegally. As a
laundering vehicle, seemingly legitimate companies can
cloak the criminally derived profits as well as the identity
of the owner of the illicit capital. Criminals can then estab-
lish new businesses for the purpose of laundering funds or
they may attempt to corrupt an existing business.
The center of the diamond jewelry and precious metals
industry for the United States is in New York City. The
traditional secrecy and large amounts of money of this in-
dustry makes it particularly vulnerable to infiltration by
money launderers. These industries have been the focus of
three major drug money laundering indictments returned
in the last five years.
The travel and transportation industries including
freight forwarders and shipping companies are also particu-
larly vulnerable to exploitation by money launderers.
Banks. We have found that a financial institution and its
employees play a major role in money laundering activity,
either wittingly or unwittingly. Investigations have disclosed
that bank officers and other employees accepted bribes
from criminals for receiving and processing large amounts
of money without filing the appropriate government forms
or by filing false reports. Numerous bank officials have been
indicted for facilitating money laundering activities.
 Wire transfers are believed to be a significant avenue
for money launderers to move large sums of money. The
Clearinghouse for Interbank Payer Systems (CHIPS) is lo-
cated in New York City and handles over 90 percent of all
United States dollar payments moving between countries
around the world, including foreign trade payments and
currency exchanges. Fedwire, the wire transfer system oper-
ated by the federal reserve, and the Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) also
conduct a substantial amount of wire transfer activity.
Securities Market. The Financial Securities Market is an-
other area in which money laundering occurs. Our experi-
ence has shown that a good portion of all drug proceeds are
laundered by this means. Currently, investigations in New
York City indicate that drug dollars are being laundered
through stocks and bonds. A recent study revealed the rela-
tive ease with which an investor can place currency into the
system. This obviously means that some bank personnel are
re-arranging the paperwork so that the proper forms are
not being filed for deposits over ten thousand dollars.
Nonbank Financial Institutions. With the success of the
Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which requires all deposits of more
than $10,000 be reported to the IRS, money launderers have
begun to turn to alternatives other than the established tradi-
tional financial institutions. These alternative or nonbank in-
stitutions take the form of services labeled as money trans-
mitters, check cashing services, courier services, travel
agencies or currency exchange houses. The term nonbank fi-
nancial institution has been used to loosely refer to:
1. Those persons or entities that receive money for the
purpose of transmitting it, domestically or internation-
ally, through courier, telegraph, computer networks,
telex or facsimile.
2. Those persons or entities that convert money into trav-
eler's checks or money orders from the currency of one
country to the currency of another, and from personal
checks, business checks, money orders or bank checks
into currency.
These businesses or nonbanks have proliferated in recent
years throughout the United States especially in densely
populated areas and within the inner-city ethnic communi-
ties. These nonbanks are usually fairly diverse and provide
services and opportunities that may assist the money laun-
derer in creating anonymity: Little if any paper trails exist,
and illicit funds are consolidated or co-mingled with legally
gained funds or profits, thus concealing the true source or
owner. These nonbanks may be operated independently in
store fronts or within other businesses, such as liquor stores
or travel agencies. These multifaceted establishments deal
almost exclusively in cash received from the consumer in
exchange for services.
Our knowledge of these types of launderers reveals
that a substantial number of these nonbanks are active in
the New York City area. Using a threshold of $100,000 in
cash transactions reported via STRs over a two-year period,
they produced approximately one hundred entities nation-
wide. Of these one hundred businesses, twenty-three, or
about 25 percent, were located in the New York City area.
A large portion of these were in Jackson Heights, Flushing
and Queens. A majority of these New York businesses were
owned by or employed ethnic groups such as Dominicans,
Colombians, Haitians and Nigerians. Almost half of these
businesses have been investigated by law enforcement, and
some are suspected of or have been arrested for money
laundering of cocaine trafficking proceeds.
Businesses operating as money transmitters are re-
quired to be licensed in the state of New York. These busi-
nesses are required to apply and post a bond to protect the
consumer. The applications are subject to an investigation,
which determines the suitability of the applicant. However,
as best as we can determine, criminal background checks
are not conducted. The number of unlicensed transmitters
by far outweighs those businesses that are licensed by the
state.
Jewelry and Precious Metals. The jewelry and precious
metals industries (including diamonds and gold) for the
United States are centered in New York with wholesale
dealers concentrated in the famous diamond district of
Manhattan. The traditional secrecy and confidential busi-
ness relationships surrounding these industries, the high
value of the commodities, and the traditional cash nature
of many transactions all combine to make these industries
particularly vulnerable to money laundering activity. In fact,
several law enforcement officials named the 42nd Street
Diamond District as the single hottest spot in New York
City for money laundering. The consensus was that no sin-
gle ethnic group was involved but that almost all the legiti-
mate businesses in the area had been approached by money
launderers.
Some of the most important money laundering cases
in New York involved these industries. The success of pros-
ecutions involving hundreds of millions of dollars appears
to have made a serious dent in the operations of these orga-
nizations. However, there is general agreement that outside
of the financial industries the jewelry and precious metal
industries continue to be the highest risk business for money
laundering in New York and other states.
Retail Industry. An industry that is increasingly vulnera-
ble to use by money launderers is the retail industry, specifi-
cally, high-dollar luxury stores that attract clients who have
large sums of money. These clients have to launder or other-
wise spend the money without attracting the attention of
authorities, so they either make the purchases with cash
or they enlist criminal associates or otherwise law-abiding
citizens to make purchases. Retailers seduced by large cash
payments, cash that they suspect came from illegal activity,
feel that they have done nothing wrong or committed no
crime when they accept this money. They fail to realize how-
ever, that the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 ex-
panded the definition of money laundering to make it illegal
for people to accept cash knowing that it comes from illegal
activities, especially if the deal itself is intended to hide the
source of the money.
There sometimes exists an unholy alliance between
certain businesses and drug dealers that fuels the fire of
drug trafficking. Some business strapped for cash are en-
ticed by the opportunity for easy money, even if the cash
has a dubious history. In some communities drug dealing is
a career that people start while in their teens and childhood
friendships between street kids often later turn into tempt-
ing situations for both the drug dealer and the legitimate
retailer.
For the purposes of this discussion let's give a fictitious
example of how an expensive clothing store, John's Clothing
Boutique, in New York City might be used by money laun-
derers.
John's is incorporated as J & A Inc., with two partners:
John Linn and Adam Kurrocka. They deal primarily in im-
ported Italian suits and shoes priced from $1,000 to $2,000.
In reality Linn was selling thousands of dollars worth of
clothes to the Raymond Edwards drug gang and to drug
king pin Don Lewis through his New York Store. The nar-
cotics traffickers purchased the expensive clothes with small
bills and spent as much as $41,000 in a single day.
Linn began as a legitimate retailer, but the store was
frequented by a childhood friend who had become one of
New York City's biggest drug dealers. Linn eventually as-
sisted the drug dealer in disposing of his illicit cash by selling
him as much as $32,000 in clothes in one month, by purchas-
ing luxury automobiles for the drug dealer registered in
John's name, and by listing the criminal as an employee of
the store. At the height of this partnership, the drug dealer
and his associates spent as much as $457,995 at the store,
and Linn registered, in his own name, six luxury cars, costing
$234,371. All of this from a store that reported a total in-
come of $85,600 during 1987 and 1988.
While Kurrocka, a master tailor from Turkey, escaped
prosecution, Linn was recently convicted on thirty-four of
sixty-seven counts of money laundering.
Convenience stores, liquor stores, restaurants and sim-
ilar businesses are attractive to money launderers and pro-
vide an excellent legitimate cover. Since these are com-
monly cash heavy concerns, licit and illicit funds are easily
co-mingled. Some drawbacks are that it requires the main-
tenance of a legitimate business, leaves an audit trail, filings
have to be made with the state, county, and city and normal
business records must be kept. And, there are limits to the
amount of money that can be channeled through without
attracting too much attention.
So how do these criminals operate? Someone with
criminal intent has the option of either establishing a new
business or purchasing an existing one. Money launderers
will often seek out businesses under financial stress due to
changing economic conditions. The purchase of an existing
business is an advantage because the business pattern is
already established and, as long as the business's cash flow
does not dramatically shift, changes would not appear un-
usual. In any event the person attempting to use the busi-
ness as a front for money laundering would tailor his activity
to ensure that the business fits the norm and avoids attract-
ing attention.
We cannot specifically state that a particular group or
groups could be singled out for money laundering activities,
and it could be that any ethnic group in an illegal activity
could be involved. For example, Russian criminal groups
are involved in gasoline tax and merchandise fraud as well
as narcotics; Italian organized crime is involved in a myriad
of criminal enterprises; Asian organized crime groups are
involved in gambling and narcotics; and the criminal ele-
ments of the Dominican community are involved in narcot-
ics. The Chinese as an ethnic group are not heavily involved
in the drug trade, however, one Chinese group holds over
3,200 companies that have earned more than $1.3 billion
yearly for the past seven years.
Money Orders
One way to launder money is to transfer currency into
money orders. Money orders can be purchased from many
different locations, not just banks retail stores, pharma-
cies and post offices are just a few. Money orders can be
made payable to anyone at any location worldwide. One can
even list fictitious persons and addresses on these money
orders, and have them cashed with little or no problem.
Narcotics dealers use the money orders mainly to re-
duce the volume of small denomination currency they re-
ceive in selling their wares. When a narcotics dealer sells
his drugs on the street, most purchases are twenty dollars
or less, which results in large piles of small bills. Drug deal-
ers must relieve themselves of this currency and will do so
by purchasing money orders.
If you have $1 million, all in twenties, you have fifty
thousand twenty-dollar bills, a large bundle of money. By
purchasing one thousand $1,000 money orders, you still
have your million dollars, but you have dramatically re-
duced the bulk of the money. The only problem is that you
need different people with different addresses to purchase
one thousand money orders.
RICO
Congress enacted and passed the Racketeer Influ-
enced and Corrupt Organizations statute, otherwise known
as RICO, as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act
of 1970. Congress wanted to have a way of controlling the
money and power obtained from illegal activities, since
these monies corrupt not only legal businesses, but aid in
corruption of law enforcement. Congress also felt that orga-
nized crime became more powerful from the profits they
received from their illegal activity.
RICO, since its earliest beginnings, has become the
most controversial federal statute to date because first time
criminals and small time dealers are losing their property
and homes. Under RICO, racketeering activities cover any
act or threat of act that involves murder, kidnapping, arson,
extortion, robbery, gambling, bribery or narcotics. If a per-
son receives any monetary gains from one of the prohibited
activites, directly or not, they have violated RICO.
RICO allows the law enforcement community to con-
fiscate any monies or properties obtained from gains made
from illegal activities. It also provides for prison time and
fines. These forfeited properties will be divided and shared
through the various agencies involved in the arrest and pros-
ecution of the criminal. In the early days of RICO, G-men
drove around in seized luxury cars, but this is no longer a
practice because it gave the government a bad public image.
Loan S h a r k i n g
Loan sharking is the lending of money at unusually high
rates of interest. The victim is a person in serious financial
straits. Loan sharking is considered one of the largest
sources of revenue in organized crime next to gambling.
Loan sharking is a violation of laws regarding usury,
that is, the lending of money at rates higher than those set
by the government. Most loan sharking also involves extor-
tion because of threats and violence used to obtain the
loaned monies. The typical victim, short on credit and col-
lateral and attempting to discharge a heavy short-term obli-
gation, undertakes another more formidable financial bur-
den through loansharks.
For each loan made by a loan shark, a pyramid of dis-
tributors or lenders exists. At each level a higher interest
rate is used so that ultimately the customer is charged about
300 cents on the dollar per year. Ultimately, the million
dollars laid out by the boss loan shark should generate half
a million dollars in profit from myriad borrowers at the end
of the year. The two objectives of the operation are the
acquisition of money and the acquiring of legitimate busi-
ness. To collect the payments due, loan sharks use enforce-
ment, which is a term covering the truly criminal aspect of
loan sharking, namely extortion. As a highly lucrative
branch of organized crime, loan sharking is controlled by
well-organized units each divided into about four levels of
operating personnel and headed by a chief or boss.
The Boss Loan Shark is at the top of the unit and is a high-
ranking person in the crime group. Although he may be the
head of a legitimate business, such as a bank or mortgage
company, his loan sharking operation is conducted without
established headquarters. He provides the financing and
the overall supervision of the operation. For example, in
the beginning of the year he will distribute a million dollars
among his ten lieutenants with the simple instructions: "It
doesn't matter to me what you get for loaning out the
money, but I want a certain percentage per week."
Lieutenants. The second level is held by ten lieutenants
who distribute about a hundred thousand dollars among the
subordinates with similar instructions requiring that they
get slightly more percentage per week interest.
Subordinates. Each of the lieutenants has about thirty
subordinates who may themselves do the lending, if the loan
is large enough, or who may have their own subordinates
who do the lending. Again the interest requirement will be
slightly higher.
Bookmakers. The fourth level is where most of the actual
lending is conducted. This may consist of working bookmak-
ers and street corner hoodlums. The interest rate at this
level is usually 5 percent of the principal per week and may
be higher.
Since any successful business is based on sound busi-
ness policy calculated to yield predictable results, so too has
loan sharking developed a reliable procedure for dealing
with default on the loan.
The first rule is that the lender makes the rules. Let's
take a case where a business owner is given a $6,000 loan
by a loan shark. The borrower, the businessman, made three
payments and then missed two. As a penalty, the loan shark
declared that the debt was now $12,000 with the 5 percent
interest per week now on this larger sum. Again the busi-
nessman failed to pay and the declared principal was in-
creased to $17,000. Finally when the debt had gone to
$25,000 the debtor was called to account.
The loan shark then declared himself a half partner in
the victim's business. Now he was to collect half of the busi-
ness profits as well as the weekly payments on the old loan.
Eventually the situation becomes hopeless and the loan
shark states that his final offer is that "if you forget about
the business we'll forget about the loan." The business is
now the loan shark's!
A sit down occurs when it appears the victim is in seri-
ous trouble and can no longer meet the payments. This
meeting is presided over by a recognized underworld chief
who decides what lump sum the loan and the accumulated
interest can be settled for. It is a court for which there is
no appeal, of course.
Let's consider the case of a company whose chief exec-
utive received a loan of $22,000 with interest of $1,100 per
week. Later another $6,500 was lent and the total interest
payments became $1,425 per week without ever diminishing
the amount owed. Soon the executive was convinced that he
could not maintain the payments. Although he had already
spent $25,000 in interest, he still owed the entire principal
of the loan.
A sit down was called with the chief loan shark. It
was ruled that the chief should take over the company and
operate its plant. In a few months the company was looted
of all its assets and driven into bankruptcy.
Failure to meet payments is met with grave disap-
proval and followed by the imposition of severe sanctions.
Depending on the nature of the case and especially on the
victim's assets, a decision is made and a penalty imposed.
This penalty may take the form of assault, murder or appro-
priation of the customer's property.
Loan sharks are very successful because the police find
them difficult to investigate. It is a personal transaction to
which there are usually no witnesses other than the two
persons involved. In fact, many loans are negotiated under
circumstances the victim is actually reluctant to reveal. For
example, gambling losses are a common cause of approach-
ing a loan shark. A husband takes five hundred dollars from
his paycheck and gambles it away. He finds that he owes
the loan shark seven hundred dollars within twenty-four
hours and will not want to admit to his spouse where the
first five hundred actually went. This is the last type of per-
son that will report to the police that he is a victim of loan
sharking.
All states have statutes covering extortion and conspir-
acy in an attempt to control the criminal activities of loan
sharks. However, in cases of loan sharking that are reported
to the police, the only person arrested, indicted and sent to
prison is the enforcer of the loan shark, who, when being
sent to break a few arms and legs, was set up by the police.
In these cases our experience has shown that the victim,
even though he has gone to the police, will not be bothered
any further. After all, why should the loan shark bother with
a victim who is under police surveillance when the city is
filled with customers ready, willing and able to pay 5 percent
interest per week!