Ring-Dropping
Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
Black's Law Dictionary
A trick variously practiced
One mode is as follows, the circumstances being taken from 2 East, P. C. 678: The prisoner, with accomplicos, being with their victim, pretend to find a ring wrapped in paper, appearing to be a jeweler's receipt for a "rich, brllliant diamond ring." They offer to leave the ring with the victim if he will deposit some money and his watch as a security. He lays down his watch and money, is beckoned out of the room by one of the cohfederates, while the others take away his watch, etc. This is a larceny.