He wasn’t breaking into houses at this particular time. Instead he made his money boosting clothes for a guy. The guy had a regular list of businessmen customers he stole for. The customer told the guy what he wanted and the guy told Stan and Stan went into the store wearing old stuff from the Salvation Army and walked out wearing the items requested. It was easy but took nerve. It wasn’t like house penetration but it was fun, exciting. You had to be careful you didn’t get all heady and start boosting everything in sight. “Never grift on the way out,” was good old con advice. One day he walked into Sichel’s, the best men’s store in Portland, to pick up a camel’s hair coat, size forty-two, when he ran into Marty Greenberg, standing in front of the triple mirrors admiring himself in a new topcoat. Marty smiled slyly and modeled the coat. “How do you like it?” “Uh, fine,” Stan said. He wondered how Marty could afford a hundred-dollar coat, but didn’t ask. He couldn’t steal anything now.
