A favorite past time of urchins across the Her Majesty's country is fooling the peelers. London's police officers pride themselves on being the best in the country and that makes them prime targets for urchin mischief. Various games revolving around staged crimes have kept these street kids busy while they should be making themselves useful in the local workhouses. I myself have on occasion 'pushed a peeler' as we called the activity of bending the strong arm of the law. One such elaborate setup occurred not hours ago and right in front of the store. This particular mishap involved a large number of urchins who pulled off an elaborate scheme that went something like this:

As constable Jones was making his usual rounds up and down Fleet Street he spotted an urchin who was clearly in the act of pinching gent's wallet. Unfortunately the little thief spotted Jones and took off, dropping the wallet. Constable Jones is a massive man not afraid of a pint or two during lunch who has the unfortunate belief he has still quite a lot of speed in him. He would have even caught up with the urchin if he had not spotted two dirty children across the street with bricks in their hands, who were on the verge of smashing in the windows of Furtoil &Sons, Jewelers. Making an immediate sharp left and crossing Fleet Street at high speed he made for the two future jewel thieves. These two had dropped their bricks and took off before Jones could reach them. The chase now proceeded along the eastern side of Fleet Street until the two tykes crossed and disappeared in an alley. This gave Jones a chance to spot the urchins who were in the process of painting the horse of a cab with bright white stripes. With a loud "Oy you there!" followed with a bout of coughing and puffing, constable Jones yet again altered his trajectory and was now in hot pursuit of two paint covered kids. These two did not tally and were making a break for it running a full block with Jones on their heels. When the police officer had almost caught up with the offenders they turned right and ran into our little courtyard where a group of urchins raised a banner on which could be read: "Finish Line". The moment our constable stumbled around the corner one of the urchins yelled: "Two minutes and ten seconds, a new record. Hurrah for constable Jones!!".