THIEF-Takers,
who make a Trade of helping People (for a Gratuity) to their lost Goods and sometimes, for Interest, or Envy, snapping the Rogues themselves, being usually in Fee with them, and acquainted with their Haunts.
Thief Takers in the 1811 Vulgar Tongue
Also see examples in Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes collected by John S. Farmer (1896).