It takes a thief to catch a thief

The saying “It takes a thief to catch a thief” wasn’t just a saying for Vidocq—it was his whole strategy.

“It takes a thief to catch a thief,” the accountant said.

“Sometimes it takes a devil to catch the Devil. It takes a thief to catch a thief. Sometimes it takes that. And I’m not sure we have that on the platform right now,” she said.

To his aghast brains trust, the cynical and cagey Roosevelt said “it takes a thief to catch a thief.”

You can argue what Franklin Roosevelt is said to have remarked when he appointed Joe Kennedy as first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission: that it takes a thief to catch a thief.