Mastermind Seen Behind Boy Theft Ring

A shoplifting mastermind organized about 75 New York City boys into a gang of thieves and gave them a manual that targets stores in suburban shopping malls in four states, authorities said Thursday.

New Jersey and New York City police said boys from a Brooklyn neighborhood made weekend trips to shoplift up to $800 worth of clothes apiece in exchange for money and drugs from the ringleader.

Compared to Fagin

Police would not say whether they had identified the leader but likened him to Charles Dickens’ villain Fagin, mentor of young pickpockets in the novel “Oliver Twist.”

Since January, 1986, 182 shoplifting arrests have been made in Paramus, Wayne and Livingston, N.J., involving boys from New York City, police Sgt. Dan O’Rourke of Newark’s special case squad said.

Authorities believe that many of the New Jersey cases involve repeat offenders and about 75 boys, ages 11 to 14, may be involved, Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said.

Typewritten Manual

In three cases, authorities found boys carrying a four-page typewritten manual that explains how to shoplift. Attached was a list of 27 stores in suburbs in northern New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, Delaney said.

“Based on talking to these kids, the leader is very charismatic and glib and he makes this out to be a game,” Delaney said. “The manual basically tells them how to avoid security and steal, and this guy knows the system of bells and security in these stores.”

The latest arrests occurred Saturday when 10 boys were held at the Paramus Park mall.

O’Rourke said that 72 New York City boys have been arrested in Paramus on shoplifting charges in the last 18 months. He said 66 had been arrested in Wayne and 44 in Livingston. Police have just begun their investigation and planned to check with police in Long Island, N.Y., Philadelphia and Stamford, Conn.--the sites of other malls on the list, O’Rourke said.

‘Street-Wise and Slick’

Delaney described the boys as “street-wise and slick” and said they work in groups of 10 on Saturdays, either taking a bus or being driven to New Jersey.

Many of the thieves carry knapsacks full of old clothes and exchange them for new ones in store fitting rooms, he said.