A classic pickpocket maneuver in St. Petersburg, Russia, choreographed by a team and a spotter. Takes place within the tight confines of a cramped convenience store on Nevsky Prospekt.
Continue readingBeware St. Petersburg Pickpockets
Watch-theft in Stockholm
Watch-theft in Stockholm is drastically increasing. Most seem to be targeted and well-planned. Social media may be a research tool for the thieves.
Continue readingLocked bike stripped by thieves? Or…
The bike owner used a massive chain and hefty lock to secure his bike to a pole. He had a delivery to make at the nearby Terrific Tenements. He was only away for half an hour or so as he located the address, dashed up a couple of flights, and got a signature for his delivery.
When he returned, the front wheel of his bike was gone. In an iffier neighborhood, he’d have popped off the front wheel and run the chain through it to prevent just this scenario. Now he was stranded.
Angry at the thief and angrier at himself for his laxness, he pulled out his iPhone and requested an Uber. Four minutes. In New York City, that could mean twelve, with traffic, double parking, out-of-order stoplights. He watched the progress of his ride on the phone.
Wham! He was suddenly viciously shoved from behind. As he stumbled forward, his phone was ripped from his hand. He fell, landing on his face, barely aware that his pockets were rifled. He never saw the thieves. He didn’t hear them, or know how many there were.
His Uber arrived a few minutes later. He dragged himself up, bloodied and bruised, and hobbled to the car.
“What happened, man?”
“Thugs,” was all he could manage, “my phone’s gone. And my front wheel.” He patted his pockets and shuddered, emerging from his shock. “Uh, also my wallet and keys.”
“Aw, brutal, man. Here, catch the blood.” The driver thrust a wad of Dunkin Donuts napkins for the injured man’s scraped face and cut hand.
“Shit, they got my bike lock key. I can’t even take my bike. Or what’s left of it.” The biker stared up at the sky for a moment and blotted his face. The driver waited patiently.
“D’you have a wrench, by any chance?”
“Sure, man, I have a tool bag in the trunk.” The driver popped open the trunk and spilled out his tool collection.
The bike rider picked out a wrench, a couple of screwdrivers, and a set of Allen wrenches. He went to work on his bike, removing first the saddle and its post, then the pedals, chain, rear wheel, handlebars with cables and accessories, the fenders, the rear rack, the kickstand, the seat post, and the brakes. He put each piece of his bike into the trunk, finally wiping his hands on the Dunkin Donuts napkins.
“Maybe I can get another key and come back for the frame,” he said, “or maybe it’s not even worth it. I think I’m done with biking in this city.” He rubbed his face, the unbloodied side, submindful of the time he sped into the opening door of a parked car, shattering the bones in his face. “I’ll sell these parts. Better than letting the thieves get it all.”
…
Or, was the bike stripped by thieves?
Maybe thieves did get it all. I saw this bike, or what was left of it, in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t the only bicycle remains I saw still locked to poles, but it was the cleanest.
Wonder about that writing on the sidewalk? It’s a quote from Bob Dylan’s Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power). Improperly punctuated (“where’s”), but has to make you wonder what else happened on this spot.
Scippatori: Italy’s Famous Scooter Thieves Rob Savvy Traveler
Doug Nabhan, a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, shared his experience:
It was 4pm in Naples’ central government plaza…
Two on a scooter.
Violently tackled from behind.
Stolen: my wallet and Rolex.
I am a very seasoned traveler having traveled to 80 countries, many of them dozens of times. I never go out with my big wallet holding my passport and I never travel with a real Rolex.
This time, in Naples, Italy [of all places! —ed.], I had violated both rules.
I had a real Rolex on because I had been in a business meeting in Rome and I had my big wallet because I was leaving to go back to Rome in the morning. I got up from a little pizza place and walked into the public square where all of municipal buildings are. It was broad daylight and there were army vehicles there.
I had walked only about ten yards from the restaurant when of course I heard a motorcycle coming and thought nothing of it. The next thing I knew he literally ran into me and knocked my feet out from under me. I landed on my face and hip. He grabbed my wallet and threw it to the guy on the bike and then wrestled my watch off. It happened in three for four seconds.
I went back to the Army vehicle where the officer would have seen it but for he was facing in the opposite direction. The officer was very kind and called the police who arrived in 30 seconds. The police were furious. They made some calls and had video of the incident in twenty minutes. I got to see it. The police were very impressive and I was convinced that if they found the guy they would beat him to death!
What really makes me mad is that I actually liked Naples and the people. Everyone thought I was crazy to like the place.
For a couple reasons I was lucky. Everything was insured and I did not get injured worse. I also had a solid gold crucifix on and a huge gold ring on.
This happened Easter weekend this year and I am still very jumpy. I’ve given it a lot of thought. The most important thing is simply not to have jewelry on that is expensive. Obviously they have spotters all over the place.
Why not dress some people like tourists with a wallet and a watch and set them up? Seems like an easy way to solve the crime wave.
Scippatori: Italy’s Famous Scooter Thieves
Oh yes, Doug was so lucky. Sometimes, scooter-theft victims die from their brutal attacks.
Doug had responded to my survey on pickpocket incidents. Yes, he did file a police report after his scooter-theft in Naples. [I haven’t compiled results yet, but the great majority of survey respondents did not file police reports.] An experienced traveler, Doug’s incident shook him so badly that even months later here he is visiting Thiefhunters in Paradise to learn about pickpockets and scippatori, Italy’s famous scooter thieves.
When Bob Arno and I first began our thiefhunting, we too, broke our rules, just like Doug did (and in Naples, of all places!). We were walking in Quartieri Spagnoli during siesta; I had a purse, Bob wore a real Rolex. The streets were deserted. We didn’t hear the silent Vespa that rolled up behind us with the motor off until two thieves jumped off and tackled Bob while the third started the engine. I hit one thug over the head with my lethal umbrella (broke the umbrella—not the head!) while Bob bellowed “POLICIA!” Luckily, the trio absconded with nothing. Even now, more than 20 years later, I still flinch and turn at the sound of a scooter.
Scippatori
Scippatori go for handbags, Rolexes, phones, and any valuables they can quickly snatch. Their speed, desperation, and brutality make them especially dangerous. As Doug concluded, the best defense is to avoid looking like an attractive target. Don’t wear jewelry. Don’t carry a purse. Don’t brandish a phone or camera. Don’t have anything grabbable.
Scippatori are currently flourishing in London, where they’re called “moped thieves.” The bandits maneuver their scooters and motorcycles right up onto sidewalks, sometimes in slow motion, snatch phones and handbags, then weave through traffic to make quick getaways.
Doug suggests a sting operation to solve pickpocketing and scooter theft in Naples. Something of the sort was set up by a German newspaper in, I think, the 90s. They had a journalist walk along a street with a handbag chained to himself (or herself). Predictably, the bait was taken! But the backseat scooter-rider-thief who snatched the chained bag was jerked off the fleeing machine, injured—and sued the paper!
In Naples, the thieves are mostly locals and mostly known to police. Pickpocket has long been just one common—almost acceptable—profession in Naples. Police there, when approached by a victim, usually just throw up their hands and blow a puff of air, as if it’s simply another tourist tax. It’s interesting to learn that the police and army officers were responsive to Doug. Maybe, finally, they’re ready to crack down on low-level criminals. Or maybe Doug found a particularly sympathetic officer. Pickpocketing and tourist theft is so embedded in the culture, I wonder if it can ever change.
I know what Doug means about liking Naples. The people are incredibly warm. Even the pickpockets: first they steal from us (a fake wallet) then invite us for coffee! I call it the City of Hugs and Thugs.
Read How to Steal a Rolex.
Read Where to Carry Valuables
Read about the Thieves of Naples
Read Revelations of a Rolex Thief
Read about Watch-Stealing
Read about The City of Hugs and Thugs
Watch the National Geographic documentary Pickpocket King about thiefhunters Bob Arno and Bambi Vincent, filmed in Naples with professional career pickpockets.
Read about Scooter snatch theft in London Now
London Scooter Snatch-Theft Skyrockets. Going? Read this!
In London, scooter snatch-theft is skyrocketing.
If you’re planning a visit there, you better read on. Simple awareness of this dangerous trending crime could save your skin and bones, besides your purse and phone.
Before I define the crime, listen: if you’re a tourist in London, you’re going to be in the danger zone. One street alone has had more than 240 scooter snatch-thefts. Tourists’ favorite areas are the thieves’ favorite areas.
London scooter snatch-theft
The crime: The bandits are usually two on a scooter, Vespa, moped, or motorbike. They’re often completely covered with jackets and full-head helmets. The victim is standing or walking along with a purse or bag—or most often the target is a mobile phone. The scooter speeds by and the backseat rider snatches the victim’s purse, or the phone right out of his/her hand. The scooter is extremely maneuverable so may even be driven slowly, up onto a sidewalk and right beside the target phone or bag.
The surprise: The scooters often come from behind. They ride onto pedestrian-only areas. The victim is just walking along, or even talking on his phone. There’s no warning.
The risk: The victim can be pulled to the ground, even dragged, as was Kirat Nandra, a 51 year-old woman whose ribs and hand were broken and who suffered a concussion when she was dragged by scooter snatch-thieves who grabbed her purse in September of 2017. She counts herself lucky that she wasn’t dragged into traffic.
Ms. Nandra’s experience is just one of many referenced in the BBC’s recent article, London’s moped crime hotspots revealed. I highly recommend this article to anyone planning a visit to London. The BBC reports 23,000 London scooter snatch thefts in 2017. 23,000!
That’s a three thousand percent increase over the 837 incidents in 2012, which already sounds high.
Police cite the proliferation of motorbike-type vehicles due to high car insurance rates, few parking places, and the increase in motorbike delivery services. People aren’t locking up their two-wheeled transportation machines and the theft of these provide thieves with more vehicles for scooter snatch-theft.
Police want locals to make their bikes theft-proof. Police want pedestrians to “be more aware of their surroundings.” That sounds like blame-transfer to me, but perhaps police can’t do more. The scooter snatch-theft bandits are completely covered so can’t be identified. Police are reluctant to pursue them in high-speed cycle chases through city streets.
But how are we to curtail use of our highly-desirable phones? We use them for everything out on the streets, not just voice calls. We look at maps and directions, bus and metro schedules, notes and address books. We take photos, we text. How can we “be more aware” while using such a Swiss army knife of a tool, an instrument that is basically an extension of our own hand?
If you’re going to London, you better be aware of the risk of scooter snatch-theft.
In the words of a London scooter snatch-theft driver
“We’re looking for people that are looking down, got their phones out, with their headphones in, in particular,” says a London scooter snatch-theft driver in the video below. “Anything that’s not securely wrapped around someone’s shoulder or someone’s back.” Walking with your phone out, “you’re asking for it,” he says. “The best people [to steal from] are the people that are standing up with their phones in their hand. We don’t even have to get off the bike, we just drive straight past, grab their phone and off we go.” Pointing out a pedestrian across the road, the disguised thief continues, “Very easy. I’ll maneuver him from behind. He’s not safe anywhere. As long as he’s distracted, that’s it. That’s all I need.”
Among his other advice (watch the video) he suggests that if you need to talk on your phone while on the street, put the phone away and use your earphones.
The drive-by thefts are widespread in London, but two districts are especially hard hit, as are several streets in particular. See the graphs and map tool in the linked article to learn the riskiest areas, but be on guard all across London. If possible, don’t carry a purse. Instead, keep valuables under your clothing in pouches or in pickpocket-proof underwear. Put away your phone when you’re not using it. Keep your ears tuned for the sound of scooters, and oil your neck for swift swiveling. Or… just try to stop walking when you use your phone on the street, back up against a building, and take a glance around. And if something is snatched, let it go.
Scooter snatch-theft isn’t new. It’s long been the M.O. of handbag and Rolex thieves in Naples, Italy. Unfortunately, it’s one of the more dangerous street crimes. If you’re going to London, read the mentioned above article and watch this video.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5CgeTbJl31w%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den-US%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent
6/6/18 Edit: How police are fighting moped theft crimes: Snatch squads to halt moped menace in London: police squads drag suspects from bikes in new tactic
6/10/18 Edit: Scooter snatch-theft perp had 13 mobile phones on him: Boy, 14, charged over seven moped robberies within one hour
Stolen phone selfies uploaded to victim’s cloud account
When Suzanne and Steve let their old dog out one recent April night, they were excited about their upcoming European vacation. They had arranged everything, they told me, for the trip, their house, and a sitter for the dog. They felt organized and eager. They let the dog back in and went to bed—unaware that the door hadn’t closed securely.
Suzanne arose early in the morning and in the kitchen, found her purse on the floor. Only mildly baffled, she figured it fell of the table. Until she turned and saw Steve’s wallet on the counter—empty. His wallet should have been in the bedroom, and it shouldn’t have been empty. Searching her purse, Suzanne found that her own wallet was missing, too.
“Steve!” she called. “Someone’s been in here!”
“Nah,” he said. They’d never had a break-in, not in their sleepy DeWitt retirement community, nor in their old blue collar neighborhood in Dearborn. They’d not even had a bicycle stolen. But it soon became clear that they’d had intruders.
Suzanne lunged for her phone to call 911, but her phone was gone. Steve’s was gone too. They didn’t have a landline. Then they found their truck was gone, as was its key fob that had been in Suzanne’s purse.
Steve ran to a neighbor’s house, awakening them at the crack of dawn to ask to use their phone. That’s when the neighbor discovered a window half open. But the intruders had backed off when they found a person sleeping inches from the window.
Steve and Suzanne filed a police report. They obtained new drivers licenses, stopped their credit cards, changed their passwords. They had to buy new phones, since they had owned the two stolen ones. Doors to their house lock (when they are locked!) with a digital keypad, so at least the crooks didn’t get house keys.
The couple went through the tedious process of setting up their new phones. Then Suzanne decided to delete some of the photos on her server. She downloaded them to her new phone. Lots of pictures of her little granddaughter. Delete, delete, delete and… what’s that? Pictures of teenagers in… in… hey, that’s Suzanne’s vehicle! Her stolen vehicle. And look at that, another picture of a kid holding a fan of money. Twelve hundred dollar bills! Could they be the intruders? The thieves? Hmmm, they took the photos with Suzanne’s stolen phone… and they’re sitting in Suzanne’s stolen truck…
Whoa. Let’s not jump to conclusions… Maybe they found the truck on the side of the road… with its key… and with the stolen cell phone inside… and they just climbed in and took some pictures, right? It could happen, no?
Suzanne sent the photos to the police. The police stepped up their investigation.
Before the phone’s battery died, its GPS placed it at a Lansing address. Before it could be retrieved, Suzanne had to track down the serial number of her phone.
The tiny DeWitt police department had to apply to big-city Lansing for a warrant with the phone’s serial number. These things took time.
By the time officers knocked on the door at the address (which turned out to be a condemned house), the suspects were no longer there. And the phone had gone dark.
Meanwhile, the credit card alerts started to roll in. American Express was vigilant in declining charges at a grocery store and a gas station. Artificial intelligence had flagged the attempted purchases as suspicious activity due to the cardholders’ spending pattern. Was there surveillance video at either place? It has been requested.
Unbelievably, the burglars returned to the same neighborhood in the stolen truck several days after their first spree, and hit another house or two. Police noticed one of the teens driving the truck. A chase ensued, until the kid plowed off the road and the vehicle was smashed and totaled.
The truck was 11 years old, so Suzanne had only liability insurance on it. It was in excellent condition though, and will cost a lot to replace. The truck had been towed and impounded.
To add insult to injury, Suzanne learned that she was liable for the $270 towing fee and $35 per day. But she wasn’t allowed to dispose of the vehicle because the police hadn’t released it. Impound fees were mounting.
Two boys were taken into custody, one 15 and one 18 years old.
Stolen phone selfies
Look at these photos. This is a proud and confident boy. He’s not a poverty-stricken street kid. He doesn’t look like a gangster. He looks more like a fashion model on that hoverboard. He appears vain and cocky. Grinning, he flaunts a fan of 12 hundred-dollar bills.
The Lansing State Journal wrote that the boys “preyed on the elderly.”
“The elderly!” scoffed Suzanne, a nurse who is only semi-retired. She and her husband, who also works part time, were clearly annoyed by that.
Classic Pickpocket team, OUTSTANDING 360° video!
A classic pickpocket team comprises three members. In the video below, watch exactly how they steal a wallet from a backpack, pass it off, then return it.
This video was shot by Emily Slessinger in Barcelona. Emily works for Rylo, the maker of a new 360°-video camera. Emily didn’t intend to film her own theft—she was trying to capture the crowd on the waterfront footbridge. She had no idea what was happening behind her, but her camera caught it all.
Classic pickpocket team
See Emily, dark-haired, sunglassed, holding the Rylo cam above her head. As the gray-hatted pickpocket approaches Emily’s backpack, her two accomplices join her. In an effort to look like ordinary tourists, all three raise their open maps and pretend to consult them while actually using the maps to conceal the theft.
Why don’t the thieves notice that their victim holds aloft a camera? Do they think she’s a tour guide brandishing a tiny device instead of an umbrella? The camera is tiny… and it’s a brand new product. Why would pickpockets suspect that a camera is filming behind the photographer? Perhaps they’ll soon learn, and carrying a Rylo will become the ultimate pickpocket repellent!
Anyway, pickpockets tend to hyper-focus on their target and are not terribly fearful of being caught. Because when they are caught, most victims don’t do anything as long as they have all their property, i.e. the pickpocket failed, didn’t complete the steal, or returned the item. So, little did these thieves know that the tiny Rylo camera had a clear view of everything. Their dipping, their pretense, their faces…
Seriously—watch this video on a tablet or cellphone to get the immersive 360° effect. See what Emily saw in front of her, but don’t miss all the action behind her—that’s where the dirty deed goes down. You’ll see pickpocketing in action as you never have. But you won’t get that close-up, right-there view on a regular computer. [Use this video link, if you don’t see the video below.]
You see the theft. You see the pass-off to the pickpocket’s partner. You don’t see the team remove €100 and $40 from Emily’s wallet. Keep watching and you’ll then see the pickpocket return to the scene of the crime and replace Emily’s wallet.
Why risk the return?
Why did she dare take this dangerous step after having gotten away with the theft? Why would she risk another dip into Emily’s backpack a full minute after a clean getaway? As Emily told me, “I assume it’s because if they got busted, it’s obvious they stole from me if my IDs are on them whereas with just cash, it’s harder to prove.” Exactly. Also, they’d have higher fines to pay if caught with a victim’s credit cards.
Emily said it was “nice of them.” Yes, it saved her a ton of work, cancelling credit cards, replacing her driver’s license, and whatever else she might have had in her wallet. Cash? Losing it is a good lesson, but not as painful as losing a walletful of documents.
But “nice” is not what drove the pickpockets to return the wallet. They’ve been told by their organizers, their bosses, their teachers, to empty the cash only and return the wallet with its documents whenever possible.
Why? Such a risky move! She and her partners are in exactly the same suspicious positions as when they first stole Emily’s wallet. So obvious are they during the return of the wallet that a bystander approaches to tell Emily that she’s been pickpocketed. Why would thieves take that risk?
These low-level pickpockets work for bosses who understand the bigger picture. The big picture is that a lot of stolen cash is not nearly as bad as a lot of stolen credit cards and IDs. With bigger thefts and more police reports being filed, the city would be forced to protect its reputation and tourist economy. More police would be put on the pickpocket detail, more arrests would be made, and more pickpockets would do jail time. Jail is expensive for cities. As it is now, eh…. The pickpockets caught by police are fined €100 to €300, which of course they must acquire by stealing cash. And for the pickpockets, that’s doable. So don’t rock the boat, don’t cause the city to step up pickpocket prosecutions.
The low-level pickpockets must obey their bosses. They are threatened with physical violence. And that’s why you see the pickpocket repeat her pickpocket choreography just to return the stolen wallet with its credit cards and ID. Emily lost only cash. She did not file a police report. If she’d lost her credit cards and IDs, she may have.
Classic technique
And that pass-off to the partner? Textbook-typical! The pickpocket prefers not to hold stolen goods.
Lastly, about that crowd: a large number of pedestrians had been held up while the drawbridge was open for a passing sailboat. The stationary crowd gave the pickpockets a perfect opportunity to choose a target and get into position. Then, when the bridge was lowered, they worked under the cover of their maps. It’s a classic pickpocket team technique, especially favored by East European perpetrators. They want a natural bottleneck, something that slows pedestrian traffic.
So, what are you going to do? You’re going to wear your backpack in front. You’re going to put your real valuables in under-clothes pouches or pickpocket-proof underwear. And you just might get yourself a Rylo 360° video camera, to capture your own theft.
Before your next trip, take a peek at Purseology 101 and Pocketology 101.
6/5/18 edit: For a great close-up video of the steal, see the Rylo 360° pickpocket video reframed. Be sure to look at the third video down on the page.
Pigeon Poop Pickpocket in Marbella, Spain
The famous pigeon poop pickpocket of Barcelona has been spotted in Marbella, Spain. Is he enjoying a working vacation in the southern coastal resort town? Is he now living there in order to enjoy the richer pickings of Brits with second homes instead of low-budget holiday-makers? More than one pickpocket has complained to us that Barcelona’s tourists don’t yield the wished-for wealth, though they make up for their cash-poor wallets in sheer number.
So the pigeon poop perp first spotted by us in Barcelona in 1998, then again in 2008, has not retired and is not currently languishing in jail. Where is he now?
“Well, I can report he’s still at large some 8 yrs after this blog thread started,” reports Pete, of Bedford, UK. “I got ‘done’ this morning, 22nd July 2017 in Marbella, Spain. And there’s little doubt from your photos it was the very same guy.”
“I’d been walking and was sitting on a wall separating two pavements in a quiet part of town (Avenida Mercado). I saw a little guy with a several day growth, big glasses, baseball hat, and the same features as in the photos, plus a few years, shuffling along on the lower pavement behind me, as if he was lost. He must have been sizing me up.
“Next thing, I felt some sort of liquid stuff hit my head and shoulders, put my hand round and back it came with bits of a sort of brown porridge on it. Initial reaction was to look up to see if someone had chucked something out of a window. But no open windows above. So then I thought bird shit? But was a bit confused when I sniffed the stuff and it smelt of cocoa drink.”
The pigeon poop perp learned long ago that the yuck factor trumps logic. Any old goop will serve, as long as it’s disgusting and the victim wants it off.
“Just then, the little guy suddenly appeared coming back behind me, and called out ‘Bird? Bird’ to me, as if to say he knew it was a bird that got me. I shrugged, still in disgust at the thought, when he motioned me to come across to see him. I hesitated. He insisted, waving a bottle of water and a packet of tissues. So I approached him. He commiserated.”
The pigeon poop pickpocket has his psychology down. He knows how to behave in order to gain his victims’ confidence. (Hence the word con artist.)
“He started brushing me down, then circled around me and said “You’ve got some on your back, take of your rucksack, go on, take it off”. At this stage I was kind of overwhelmed at his concern to help me. He even got me to circle around whilst cleaning me down, which meant of course that my rucksack was behind me and out of my sight for 20 secs or so. Then, he got me to take off my shirt, indicating it was fouled.”
In his Academy-Award-winning role as good samaritan, the pigeon poop pickpocket performs with aplomb. So convincing is his good-guy cameo, his discombobulated victims trust him like obedient children. Just get the yucky stuff off me, please!
“Looking back, my collaboration with this suggestion was pure idiocy because there I was standing with no shirt on when he suddenly took his leave of me, gesturing to keep the water and tissues he’d given me. Even then, I had no idea of the advantage he’d taken of me. After shaking down my shirt, I put it back on and slowly walked on, partly in disgust at, as I imagined, having had a bird score a direct hit on me, and partly full of admiration for this altruistic citizen.”
…And the Oscar goes to…
“Half an hour later I walked into a small store to buy a cheap tee-shirt to replace the fouled one. I took out my wallet from the small pocket on the outside of my rucksack where I normally keep it, to pay. I opened it and to my horror it was completely empty of cash, whereas only an hour ago it most certainly contained two €50 notes and one £50 note. The penny dropped. This ‘kind citizen’ thief had had the damned cheek to remove, open, drain and replace my wallet whilst he was ostensibly brushing down my back. All in 20 seconds, no problem to a skilled operator.
“My first reaction was to go and hunt him down, as he was most likely ‘working’ Marbella old town that day. My second, that a confrontation, in which I might well have grabbed his bag, could have been turned against me as an attempted robbery on him. So, still in a bit of shock, I decided this was just a painful lesson in life that had cost me €150. Then I thought… next time I’m in Marbella, I will hunt him down, track him from a distance, and get some telephoto shots of him working his con trick on some other poor soul, before shouting a warning to the victim. But then I started my Google search for ‘bird dropping con man’ and up came this blog. All I can say is that this smooth operator needs his picture up in every tourist area of Spain. Thanks for your interest on this site!”
Like 70-80% of pickpocket victims, Pete did not file a police report. I don’t blame him at all—there are many reasons not to. He did complete my survey though, which is extremely helpful in enabling me tally incidences and frequency of reporting. [Thank you so much Pete!]
As I said in my second story of the pigeon poop pickpocket (this is my third):
This is a perfect con. (Con comes from confidence, right?) He plays the good Samaritan. He gains your confidence. He creates a strategy to touch your body wherever he wants to, wherever the disgusting mess supposedly is. A pickpocket can’t steal without touching, right? Why wait for an opportunity? That’s for amateurs. Create one! I call these thieves strategists and they are devious. Look, he makes you grateful to him. He desensitizes you to his touch. And he employs the yuck factor, taking advantage of the truth that bird shit directly triggers the ick region of the brain, a highly effective distraction.
He’s still out there, I’m sure. And he’ll find unsuspecting victims every day. All we can do is spread the word.
Hardworking Paris pickpocket needs $2M for U.S. visa
“I know you!” the girl said when she turned around and got a glimpse of Bob Arno. He and I had followed the girl and her friend because, though we only saw them from behind, their posture and behavior told us they were hardworking Paris pickpockets.
We’d been ready to head home after a long day of thiefhunting in Paris when the sky broke loose and rain fell in buckets. Bob and I dove into the first Metro station we could find, drenched.
And there on the platform, two thieves; a girl-pair of pickpockets. I got my video running as we pushed onto the rush-hour train behind them. The train doors smacked close on my shoulder and opened again. I pressed closer behind Bob and the doors closed. The girls were smashed up against us.
Crowds are ideal for thievery, but this train might have been too sardiney for the pickpockets to plunge their hands downward. Unable to work, they got off at the next stop.
Paris pickpocket pursuit
We followed, which is when the younger one turned and recognized Bob—just as she did in October of 2014. Back then, two and a half years ago, she was part of a swarm of child pickpockets. I thought the youngest boy must have been about ten. She had recognized Bob from the film National Geographic made about us, Pickpocket King, which is on Youtube. Of its millions of views (almost 8,000,000 for the English language version alone), many viewers are criminal pickpockets.
This time, when the girl-thief recognized Bob, her face lit up and she reminded us that we’d met two and a half years ago. She tried to assuage her jittery older partner while dragging us off to dinner at a large pizza joint.
Dinner conversation was jolly, despite the elementary French and occasional phone app-translations. The partner slowly warmed up. Turns out the girl, Gh____, is a woman of 28. She still tells police that she’s 17 in order to avoid jail. Good trick. Common trick. And in her case, pretty believable if you don’t know her from previous arrests.
Our official Paris police source, the Mysterious Monsieur F, tells us that arrestees often claim to be under 18, and of course they often use aliases. When the police doubt the perp’s age, they can ask to do a bone scan, which may corroborate the under-18 claim. But the Paris pickpockets don’t have to give consent. That recently happened, the Mysterious Monsieur F. told me, with a 92-year-old male pickpocket. If they’re lucky, police can match these perps to previous arrest records. (If that 92-year-old has arrests spanning more than 18 years—poof!—busted!)
Portrait of a pickpocket
Gh____ has six children! Right, I wonder why. Police can’t jail perps who are pregnant or carrying an infant. So the pickpockets have lots of babies and share them around. But Gh___ said she truly loves having many children, loves coming home to the commotion with them all swarming around her, and wants to have many more. She’s a Gypsy, and the Gypsy culture truly does revere its children.
Gh____ was first married at 13 and had her first child soon after. Which makes me wonder: were any of the children in the gang we met in 2014 Gh____’s children? They could have been. I regret that I didn’t think to ask her.
We are connected to Gh____ on facebook, but she is completely illiterate. She started pickpocketing at a very young age and didn’t go to school. All her family are thieves, she told us. I wonder now if that includes her kids.
Gh____’s partner that day was V___, who seemed older, and can write. V___ wrote down Gh____’s contact info for us. She has five children and doesn’t want any more.
Gh____ told us that she recognizes all the civilian police officers, and they know her. They can even recognize each other from behind. They also know her distinctive tattoos, which she got in jail. [Aha! So she has spent time in jail!]
Gh____ claims she only takes cash, not credit cards. (We find that hard to believe, given the incredible potential for exploiting cards. But credit card fraud is a higher level crime than cash-stealing, and why should she trust us with all her secrets?) She’s saving up to join other family members in the U.S. She needs two million dollars for a visa, she said. Her family in the U.S. make a lot of money with credit cards, and she wants to join them.
She then displayed her hefty wad: at least $1,300 in fresh U.S. hundred-dollar bills and a few 50s. (All the bills looked new; had she just exchanged a collection of foreign currency? Or was she stalking marks she spotted at cash machines?)
Gh____ insisted on paying for dinner, then got antsy to get back to work. It looks like she’ll get that two million!
Pickpockets look like tourists
Pickpockets look like tourists, and it’s not by accident. Replete with water bottles, backpacks, camera, baseball caps, these “props” are intended to camouflage the pickpockets’ unscrupulous objective. If she looks much like you, a tourist, you won’t think twice when she, just another “tourist,” stands beside you. Her costume elicits trust.
We travelers make subtle, unconscious snap judgments of those around us. One person may cause no reaction, no alarm bells, while another prompts a slight step away, an extra glance, without even thinking. Why? What is it?
Pickpockets in Girona
The two women you see pictured here strolled through the German Garden in Girona, Spain, just like any other visitors. They shouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. But they turned where “BJ” and her husband turned, and they paused where BJ and her husband paused. BJ made a subliminal note of that.
Still, that apparently innocent behavior wasn’t unsettling in the least. Stopping on a lookout balcony, BJ raised her camera toward the beautiful view. It was only seconds later when her husband shouted and grabbed onto one of the women that BJ realized something was amiss. In fact, what flashed though her mind in the first instant was that her husband had saved the woman from jumping.
BJ saw her own purple/pink wallet in the thief’s hand and snatched it back. She can’t recall the woman ever being close enough to touch her, let alone having enough time to open the zipper of her purse. The nearness of these ordinary women was not a threat, not a thought, not even on her radar.
Exactly the reaction, or lack of reaction, that this sort of sneak thief depends upon.
However, they were on BJ’s husband’s radar. He’d kept half an eye on the two as they followed too quickly and stopped when he and BJ stopped. He saw the blond go into BJ’s purse.
“Hubby” held onto the thief and raised a ruckus until the women’s “thug” protector arrived, all chest-thrusting-threatening, though he was a young punk and a foot shorter than Hubby.
Pickpockets look like tourists
The photo that BJ had the presence of mind to capture is wonderful. There is shouting going on, but we don’t see it. Hubby wears an expression of shock and disbelief (I was asked to blur his face.) as he holds onto the thief and looks desperately for help. Meanwhile, the thief smiles beatifically! Her posture shows no distress, no resistance. She looks straight into the camera… relaxed! She’s in the firm grip of a shouting man whose wife she’s just stolen from, and she appears amused!
She knew how this incident would conclude. Probably, she’d been in the same position many times. “You have your stuff, so what’s the problem?” she asked. Maybe she even giggled.
But to BJ and her husband, this was a serious criminal matter. They’d caught a thief in the act, had her in a vice grip, and wanted her arrested. “We didn’t back down,” BJ said, “but what do you do with them when you’ve caught them?” There were no police around.
And there was this very aggressive thug. “Eventually there was this ‘he could have a knife’ moment so hubby let the girl go and they left,” BJ told me.
Both BJ and Hubby had taken all the appropriate safe-stowing precautions. BJ’s wallet had been zipped in and attached to her purse. The wallet contained only a little cash, her driver’s license, and one credit card that could be quickly cancelled.
Unsatisfying ending
BJ and her husband thought they could make a difference. They thought they could put this one trio of thieves out of business, at least for a while.
But the pickpockets walked away, smiling. For BJ and her husband, it was not a satisfying conclusion. They never did find a police officer in Girona, and those in Barcelona were uninterested.
In the beginning of our thiefhunting many years ago, Bob Arno and I thought, like BJ and Hubby, that we could make a difference by bringing video evidence to the police. We received the same reaction our brave travelers got: a laugh, a puff of air, a confirmation that yeah, the police know who they are, what they do, even where they live. But laws are loose and pickpockets make it their business to know the laws. All over Europe thieves tell us: more than anyplace, they like to work in Spain.
