$500 Reward for the Arrest of A. W. Pyle. St. Louis, 1874. (Gift of Edwin Wolf 2nd)
Many thefts were inside jobs, and it was difficult for shop keepers to know which employees they could trust. They often learned the hard way. This wanted poster provides a thorough description of A. W. Pyle, a watchmaker who stole tens of thousands of dollars in watches and jewelry from Barney Spyer, a diamond importer and pawnbroker. The items were probably taken to a fence who disaggregated them, melting down the metals and selling the gemstones separately to wholesale and retail traders, thus funneling the goods back into reputable markets, no longer resembling the stolen items.
