Snap thief

[George Thompson]

"Snap thief" isn't in the OED.  A thief who grabs something and makes off
with it quickly.

     Arrest of Alleged Snap Thieves. [Timothy Madden and John Edwards, for
snatching "a choice chest of tea" from one of the Coroner's carts]
     New York Morning Express, December 6, 1859, p. 4, col. 1

(If the OED gang wants me to look over the article again to see whether
there is a more explicit sentence showing the meaning, speak up now,
because I won't have the film in hand for more than another month or so.)

GAT

--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org