Many of their early crimes were simple larcenies, he added.

In Massachusetts it is simple larceny to obtain by false pretenses the money or personal chattel of another.

Congress likewise singled out burglary because of the potential for harm that crime entails as compared to simple larceny or automobile crimes.

Stump was also accused of passing erroneous judgments such as in the case of Thomas M. Watkins, a free Negro convicted of simple larceny in Stump's court.

Often high on price and low on security, the boutiques have been ripe targets for simple larcenies, young men darting into, say, the store Vice on Lafayette Street, grabbing a bunch of jeans and running out.

Shirley Johns, director of the Community Service and Referral Center in Lansing, recently told the A.P. the advice she gives to those left without food or shelter: "I tell them to commit a simple larceny.