Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also area slum) the robbery of basements [slum n.² (3)].

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 225: area sneak, or area slum: the practice of slipping unperceived down the areas of private houses, and robbing the lower apartments of plate or other articles.
1828		T. Gaspey History of George Godfrey III 24: They had ascended by regular gradations, from the area sneak, — robbing the areas of houses; and the kid rig, — imposing on boys entrusted with parcels, braving every variety of punishment, from the stoop, to the scragging post.
1904		Derby Dly Teleg. 12 Oct. 4/4: This is the area sneak business, going on tip-toe and stealing the servant’s boots.

2. (also area diver, ...lurker, arey sneak) a thief who specializes in robbing basements [diver n. (1)/lurker n. (1)/].

1826		New Times (London) 13 Jan. 4/3: Yesterday the ‘area sneak’ named John Williams [...] who recently had figured as a stealer of turkey or tureen [...] was finally examined.
1836		Morn. Advertiser (London) 28 Sept. 4/1: The avenues [...] were crowded with cadgers [...] from the begging-letter imposter to the area sneak, the latter being considered the lowest class of beggars.
1840		Champion 2 Feb. 7/1: An Area Sneak [...] persons designated as above who sneak down areas to pilfer.
1856		‘A Harrassing Painsworth’ in Yates & Brough (eds) Our Miscellany 23: Round this table were seated the choice spirits of London — the highwaymen, the mufflers, the area sneaks, the prigging princes, the gonophs, the magsmen, and the fences of the day.
1857		Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 23 June 2/1: [from N.Y. Tribune] Thousands of lottery dealers, policy backers, pickpockets, hall thieves, burglars, wharf-rats, area sneaks, pimps and vampyres, practice their knaveries openly.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 2: area-sneak a thief who commits his depredations upon kitchens and cellars.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 25: ‘Area Sneaks,’ or those who steal from houses by going down the area steps. [Ibid.] IV 291/1: These area-divers go down into the areas, and open the safes where provisions are kept [...] and carry off the spoil.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 215/2: Yah! boo! arey sneak!
1874		M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 35: Stalwart burglars and highway robbers, slept side by side with wizened pickpockets or cunning-featured area-sneaks.
1882		J. Moon Poems 164: He who was once a gent, with his pegtop pantaloons, / The area sneak who bolted with the silver spoons.
1895		R. Blatchford Merrie England 138: The sweater, and the rack-renter, and the respectable dealer in adulterated goods, are not only morally worse than the footpad and the area-sneak, but they are also guilty of greater and more deadly injury to their fellow-subjects.
1907		C. Kernahan Dumpling 27: You may even be what in America they call an area sneak-thief, except for the fact that you have sneaked your way to the top of the house instead of to the area.
1919		C.A. Mercier Crime & Criminals 244: The area sneak who filches the milk-cans from the doors of late risers has not dexterity enough to pick a pocket, even if he had the inclination to do so; and the pickpocket would scorn to stoop to the method of the area sneak.
1922		W. Le Queux Voice from the Void 161: It was, after all, very humiliating to one of his high caste in crookdom to be arrested like a mere area sneak.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Area lurker, a thief who enters apartments or homes, after he has found out that nobody is home.