Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a petty thief; a sneak thief.

1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 143: It was my original intention to have presented the reader with a day-by-day chronicle of my career as a market prowler.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 53: They were growlingly rebuked by the heavy-jowled roughs and the street-corner prowlers, their elders.
1915		D. Lowrie My Life out of Prison 234: He had peeked into every closet [...] It was the ‘prowler’ instinct manifesting itself.
1929		C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 197: There is usually a prowler on every night train whose sole business in life is to rifle the unwary passenger’s baggage.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 582: A sneak-thief is a prowler, a dirty fellow (most tramps are relatively clean) is a grease-ball.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1952		L. Lariar Day I Died 139: We had a bunch of smalltime robberies last week, mostly prowlers.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 813: prowler – A sneak thief.

2. (US, also prowl) a housebreaker.

1891		Neenah Dly Times (WI) 17 Jan. 2/5: [headline] One of the Night Prowlers Strikes a Football Player.
1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 94: Prowler – A burglar who robs houses at night when occupants sleep.
1912		D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 127: Lefty had ‘soup’ an’ tools with him an’ was a professional prowler.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 59: When K.C. Kid became a prowler he worked out a very clever system for locating rich homes which were unoccupied for the moment.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 19: I got to know a prowler who knew all about locks, keys and lock picking. [Ibid.] 195: He was a hot foot prowl, that is doing a job in a house where people are asleep.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 22: Both are now hotel prowls (sneak thieves).
1959		(con. c.1915) G. Duffy Warden’s Wife 53: Other members of the fraternity, the prowlers, porch-climbers, and yeggmen.
1981		(con. c.1920) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 228: I thought he might be an afternoon prowler.