- ARMORIZED.
TIRES

_ PRINCE GEORGE TIRE SERVICE

J. SLESINGER, Proprietor

*

MOST MODERN AND UP-TO-DATE EQUIPMENT
IN NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA

*

British Columbia

Good Things to Eat

SHASTA CAFE

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.

Meals Appeal

F. O. HALE W. R. CAMPBELL
NATIONAL HOTEL
Most Modern Hotel in Prince George

Fully Licensed Premises
Opposite C.N.R. Station

PRINCE GEORGE

B. C.

NECHAKO BAKERY

QUALITY BAKERY PRODUCTS

*
PRINCE GEORGE

Stand: BUS DEPOT 24-HOUR SERVICE

VETS TAXI

GEORGE COWELL - A. J. LENEHAN

e
SAFE COURTEOUS DRIVERS

Telephone 75

Long Distance Trips Our Specialty
e

PRINCE GEORGE -

B.C.

Page Ninety-eight

men, become professional bad cheque
operators. They usually operate in stores
and establishments catering to the fem-
inine trade. There are several well known
female operators in British Columbia.
One of these has recently been released
from gaol, another is serving a gaol term,
and a third is being sought. The latter
has defrauded a number of merchants,
both in Victoria and other Island cities,
by means of cheques purporting to be
issued by her husband’s employer. The
company names were stamped with the
ever present rubber stamp, and various
aliases were used by her. She quite often
made a small purchase in cashing the
bogus pay cheque to disarm the merchant,
and produced fraudulent identification, in
at least one instance, a false National
Registration card.

“The bad cheque operator, or ‘paper-
hanger’, as he is called in underworld
terminology, has a decided advantage in
his battle of wits with the Law. It is
TIME. Time is the element, which with
few exceptions, always operates in his
favour. Cheques are often passed during
Saturday rush hours, or just before a
holiday period. Quite often they are
drawn on a bank in another town. This
gives the operator several days’ start be-
fore complaints are made to the police.
Not infrequently the complaint is received
several weeks after the cheque has been
cashed, and none of the store staff are
able to recall the description of the per-
son who cashed it. Thus the police are left
with a ‘cold trail’ to begin their enquiries.
This naturally makes the investigation
much harder.

“Another type of operator is becoming
more and more active. He deals only in
genuine cheques which have been filched
from apartment house mail boxes, hotel
and rooming-house pigeon holes, and
even residential letter boxes. The rural
mail delivery box has also proved an ex-
cellent target for the cheque thief. Some-
times the similarity of names causes the

cheque to fall into the wrong hands. I

incident that occured recently in one of
our northern towns.

years and ten’ lived’on a very small pen-

cheque which he cashed with as much

recall an amusing, if somewhat pathetic

An old gentleman
who had passed the allotted ‘three score

sion he receives from a government
bureau. He had on many occasions tried
to have this raised a little but with no
result. One day he had received an extra

speed as his advanced age would permit.
‘This,’ he thought, ‘is the extra money’.
Some time later, another man bearing the
identical Christian and surname com-
plained to another bureau that he had not
received his cheque. Enquiries followed, —
which soon revealed what had happened.
The old man had received a cheque he
was not entitled to. When approached,
he stoutly maintained the cheque had been
made out in his name, and so it was his.
That’s all there was to it as far as he was
concerned. He had not noticed the cheque
came from another agency. All he knew
was that this was the extra money he had
asked for. What could be done? The old
man had no money to make restitution,
even if he were inclined to do so, which
he was not. His small pension could not
be attached, and he could not be sent to

Gordon H. Gould

Representing

The Swanson Lumber Company
Lid., cf Edmonton, Alia.

Box 147

Prince George British Columbia

THE SHOULDER STRAP