After Suzanne and Steve’s house was invaded and burgled, this photo was uploaded to Suzanne’s phone account. The boy is inside Suzanne’s stolen vehicle.
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.
Photo taken with victim’s stolen cell phone, uploaded to victim’s cloud account
“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.
Another photo uploaded to the burglary victim’s cloud account, taken with her cell phone.
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.
How to Protect Yourself from Street Thieves and Muggers
In an extended scuffle, a man holds onto the boy who has tried to rip items from his hands. He lets the boy go. The boy will try his luck in another crowd as soon as he catches his breath.
“Be more vigilant; be aware of your surroundings,” warn US government agencies to travelers heading to Rio. Be aware of pickpockets in Rio.
These three keep glancing at the boy who is following them closely. The boy follows them across the street, then swipes something from the hand of another pedestrian.This boy swiped a phone right out of the victim’s hand.A boy jumps on the bus tire to reach into the window. The passenger quickly closes the window.Two boys try to snatch a man’s gold chain. The man fights them off, and walks away, clearly shaken. Moments later, the boys return for another try.Got a phone, plus earphones.The thief (in orange) considers who to steal from: the two women with purses and packages? He chooses the man with the backpack and goes for the man’s necklace. The thief attacks the man three times, finally tackling him to the ground.The thief runs away, leaving the victim on his back in the street.A leap and grab—sometimes it works.A small kid (center, in blue) tries to snatch a man’s watch. There are seven kids in the pack against the man (in red and white striped shirt).A chain snatcher lingers on a street corner until a mark comes along.A drive-by thief on a bike grabs the phone from a pedestrian’s hand. The phone drops. The thief fails.Another drive-by thief on a bike, another failure.A boy leaps high to grab a bus passenger’s phone. He gets it but drops it. Strangely, he picks up the pieces and tosses them back inside the bus window.Two chain-snatchers.
But what does it really mean: “be more vigilant”? That advice seems to be given on a daily basis now, whether about visiting France, attending the Olympics in Rio, or a music festival anywhere.
Robbed in Rio
How should the ordinary citizen become more alert, more aware, and more vigilant nowadays? What does that even mean?
Well, consider where you are, first, and the specific risks, whether you’re on a Mediterranean cruise, or in a club in Paris, or on a beach in Rio. There are smart tactics useful for all those places.
[Edited to add: The New York Times reports on 8/8/16 that “there were nearly 11,000 street robberies in June” this year—and that’s only reported street robberies!]
Pickpockets in Rio
Pickpockets in Rio are not seasoned criminals—many are simply street urchins, teenage muggers, and simple pickpockets looking for an opportunity. They are the homeless piraña kids who have little to fear from law enforcement, and behave like pack animals, circling their prey in perpetual motion, looking for a new easy score. They are looking for another uninitiated mark who simply doesn’t understand the risk.
A perfect mark or an inexperienced tourist gives off signals which the perps pick up on. Their internal computer tells them this looks easy, no danger of getting caught, and I can sell that iPhone to a fence in less than thirty minutes. Easy work.
You can minimize the risk of a bad experience by following a few ground rules and understanding who your opponents are. Here are three fundamental rules to put into daily practice, in Rio and elsewhere.
Anti-theft Rules for Rio
1. Don’t give off the signals that identify you as their next meal ticket.
The most obvious behaviors to avoid not just while in Rio, but in many summer destinations:
•Dress down, do not wear an expensive watch or any jewelry, and especially not a gold chain or necklace. Thieves stealing watches do not use tricky moves to open buckles as in a Las Vegas stage show. They grab it and rip it off, breaking the strap. Do not think that a Rolex is safe because of its sturdy metal strap or double latch. Thieves in Rio are experts at twisting a Rolex face to break a pin in the strap, which is the weak point in a Rolex watch strap or bracelet.
•Under no circumstances should you hang an expensive camera around your neck.
•Don’t use an iPhone in public.
•Don’t use an ATM unguarded. If you must use an ATM, carefully analyze the location, and look for scruffy individuals in near proximity.
•Do not carry a wallet or credit cards in a slanted front pants pocket which gapes an bit when you walk. Pickpockets in Rio operate with speed, not finesse. The tighter the pockets, the harder it is for the thieves. Crowded public transportation is common setting for pickpockets almost everywhere during the summer.
•Walk far from the curb on a busy street, to avoid marauding scooter thieves who snatch bags from shoulders or hands. When it’s dark, walk against the traffic and away from the curb. Wise Europeans already know to wear their back packs in front when walking in public.
•Sitting in a public bus, tour bus, tram, or train requires extra care. If you sit next to an open window, watch out. When the bus is still or creeping in traffic, aggressive kids jump up to grab a phone within reach, or leap onto the tire to reach inside the window.
There are tons more travel safety tips, but if you follow these suggestions above you have already eliminated the most common thefts in Rio.
2. Understand how and when to be defensive and when to be passive.
•Should you fend off a bare-chested youth who grabs something from you or attempts to mug you or your significant other? If it’s broad daylight and there are lots of people around, being forceful is generally fine. That means getting into a low position with good balance and watching your back for an attack from behind. The darker it gets the harder it is to evaluate the confrontation. Is it a team mugging you? How many are they? Each scenario requires different advice. A gang of muggers will often have one member with a weapon of some sort, usually a knife. They’re not seeking to harm you physically unless they are cornered or counter attacked.
•Don’t expect bystanders to step in and assist you. There is a dislike in Rio between the wealthy and the street kids—a class conflict between the rich (you, the tourist) and the not-so-rich. The general public will seldom come to your aid or interfere for fear of their own safety.
•Being cut or knifed in broad daylight is not common, but if you do hold on to a thief and shout for police, his buddies may quickly appear to help him. More common are attacks by single operators—a poorly dressed young male with bare chest and flip-flops or bare feet.
•The more sophisticated pickpockets in Rio use entirely different techniques. You avoid them and becoming their victim by using travel pouches hung inside your pants from a loop that your belt goes through. All online travel-accessory stores sell various inexpensive models. Those that hang under your shirt from a string around your neck are not sufficient in Rio.
3. Pro tips: Minimize the risk by identifying the perps early, and getting out of their line of sight.
•Sensing the approach of a mugger is half the battle.
•Try to stay on major streets and don’t deviate into unknown territory. Plan your itinerary and your exact routes. Ask your tour guide or the hotel staff if your route is safe to walk and what to avoid. But realize the scene changes drastically from day to evening to night.
•Muggers will often stand out by moving irrationally and not fitting into the scene. But this does not mean that every poor youngster is a criminal; it just means that you must observe your surroundings all the time, especially behind you. If you sense that a suspect (or a gang) is closing in on you—think National Geographic animal kill documentaries in Africa, predators circling their prey—get yourself into a defensive position, and certainly try to move away from a location where you are vulnerable.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve got to see this video. It’s theft after theft in Rio, some successful, some only attempts. Watch the utter nonchalance of the thieves, and of some of the victims, too.
A pickpocket gang who amassed more than 5 million pounds by stealing mobile phones on the Tube has been jailed for more than 30 years. Pictured is ringleader Nawid Moshfiq. Photo courtesy swns.com
Pickpockets Stole Mobile Phones
Who says pickpocketing is a petty crime?
A gang of 11 thieves was just sentenced in London. These pickpockets stole mobile phones on the London Tube and supposedly made about $15,000 a day. Police recovered £143,000 but credit the gang with making more than five million pounds through stealing phones. Let me do the math for you: that’s more than seven million dollars. Is that petty?
These thieves belong to a criminal network and systematically steal mobile phones from Tube passengers. It’s not a one-off crime. The British Transport Police Chief Superintendent Paul Brogden calls this an “industrial-scale criminal operation.” Can it possibly be considered petty?
More than a thousand mobile phones were seized with a large quantity of cash.
You can tell that term really irks me. The entire premise that pickpocketing is a petty crime irks me. How much evidence do we need?
You’d think I’d be used to this kind of report, after 22 years of pickpocket research.
These characters were all sentenced to two to three years; head thief Nawid Moshfiq got a little more time. What will they serve, half? Less? Then what? Will they go back to work in London? Maybe, or they’ll move on to another city where the police don’t know them.
Entrance to the Barcelona tourist police office, where the welcome mat is literally worn out.
In my previous post, I offered seven simple rules to save yourself from pickpockets, inspired by my research into the Barcelona pickpocket scene today. Although they are presented with Barcelona in mind, the rules are good practice for most travel to areas unfamiliar to you, or when visiting areas known for pickpocket action.
You can avoid almost all of the most common pickpocketing methods if you follow those seven rules. Remember, the thieves read you and go for the least aware. They’ll head for the easiest opportunities. Don’t make yourself easy picking. It’s easy to defeat these pickpockets. The locals do.
In late October 2015, I spent several days updating our knowledge of the Barcelona pickpocket scene today. As I recently noted, our research is tedious and methodical. Here, I will present a few key findings from my research.
Barcelona pickpocket scene today
A street hustler in BarcelonaA pickpocket distracts a man with sex: she and her accomplice grope his groin and his pockets.La Boqueria, the huge market on La RamblaBob Arno interviewed this Boqueria security officer.Living statue at the bottom of La RamblaOne of many counterfeit-bag sellers on La Rambla.At a spotter’s whistle, the seller pulls a string to instantly bundle and hide his wares.Police zoom up as the counterfeit seller hustles away.A sign in the arrivals hall of Paris CDG airport.In the metro: a tailgater rushed inside without a ticket. He waited, holding the gate open for his friend.Bob Arno speaks with metro security.Bad practice: leaving your mobile phone on a cafe table.
Police intelligence
I had several conversations with the local police. This is always tricky in Barcelona. Language barriers, rules from above to be tight-lipped, and to what extent they even know the average daily incident rate. We know that the real number of thefts is at least three times higher than the official one, since only one in three (at best) will bother to go to a police station and file an official report. The (vast) majority of victims chalk it up to a bad experience or a good lesson. C’est la vie.
Theft numbers are slightly down compared to years past. This is something I can confirm from chats I had with many hotel front office staff, restaurant managers, and people who work in areas where we’ve seen plenty of pickpocket action in the past. What my police friends could not explain was the reason for the downturn. It appears that the number of plainclothes (undercover) officers out in the field is the same as before. One good guess is that the majority of tourists now know before they arrive to be alert. Word is out. People are therefore more cautious.
Sexy pickpockets
But there was also some negative news. I was told that there are 50-100 female prostitutes operating in Barcelona who are more pickpocket than partner to lonely men. I thought this development was a bit peculiar, but I can see how the majority of these victims would not rush to the nearest police station to report a robbery. With this little nugget I began my own research. No, I didn’t hire a pro to get the goods (on camera), but I did strike up conversations with women who would know, including a few who did proposition me in the evening on La Rambla. One told me: “A third of the girls are simply doing tricks, and a third turn tricks and do pickpocketing. The final third are ladyboys who do only pickpocketing.”
There are a number of streets and regions in Barcelona where this action is rampant. And the women (and men) are extremely aggressive. Watch out!
Markets
My next stop was La Boquería, the hugely popular market just off La Rambla, full of fabulous small food stalls with exquisite Catalonian fruits, nuts, Iberian hams, chocolate, fresh seafood, flowers, and temptations galore for food lovers. The market is always crowded and always fun to stroll through at any time of the day.
And yes, there is pickpocketing there. But not as much as one would think. The market is concerned with security and its reputation and therefore hires guards. But not every entrance is controlled and the thieves know the weaknesses of the system and camera positions. Various stall owners or managers told me about the frequency of the thieves and when it is most likely to have an encounter with them: Friday or Saturday, paydays with many customers carrying cash, and especially crowded. My additional suspicion: maybe slightly less police presence on Saturday. Most thefts are from women’s handbags or from older people less alert to their surroundings and their pockets.
Ronaldinho technique
I also saw some of the classic pickpocketing moves late in the evening right on La Rambla, which otherwise is fairly safe since it’s constantly patrolled by officers in uniform (far more than in the past). Around 11 PM I saw the old Ronaldinho football stunt tried on a man in his twenties, maybe slightly tipsy, but the mark realized what was going on and just barely escaped the attack. In years past I would recognize various pickpocket teams crossing La Rambla late in the evening, but this time I saw no evidence of these punks. The bar scene is where one has to be most vigilant nowadays in Barcelona, and when taking the underground Metro.
The bottom of La Rambla still has the living statue performers, but only on the first two hundred meters or so. There was no evidence of the “three-shell gamers” who have otherwise infested La Rambla. Clearly an improvement and a clean-up process. The crowds that always form quickly around these con men are ripe pickings for the pickpockets.
Counterfeit-sellers
In their place Barcelona and especially La Rambla has been invaded by replica hustlers, small teams of men from West Africa who sell counterfeit handbags, fake brand name clothes and sport shoes, laid out on sheets spread on the ground. Of course all of Europe is plagued with this phenomenon, and wonders how to deal with it. It is illegal. If one approaches this from an elitist viewpoint it is trashy, cheap, and blocks pedestrian passage on otherwise nice streets. From a different angle, one can say these immigrants are trying to survive with a trade and it seems that buyers are eager and willing to find bargains on name brand luxury goods, whether legitimate or copy.
However it is illegal and in some countries, foremost among them France, authorities take a very serious stance on anyone buying or possessing counterfeit products. And so the hustle continues—a cat and mouse game in which the police sweep down on the culprits and the hustlers pull strings attached to the corners of their display sheets, instantly morphing the spread into a huge swag bag containing all their contraband, slung on their backs as they dash off. These gangs have controllers or spotters who alert them that the police are approaching, just as the three-shell-game hustlers also have spotters looking out for uniformed or undercover police officers.
The replica game is huge business all over the world, but a very difficult trade to block or efficiently remove. Some locales have enormous illegal black-market replica industries; for example Italy (Naples), Turkey) (Kusadasi & Istanbul, Malaysia (Johor Bahru), Thailand (Bangkok), Vietnam and of course the major cities in China. It is especially difficult to prosecute—what really is a replica, and what is not?
Metro
I then took a few trips on the local Metro from Plaza Catalonia and witnessed first hand a few female pickpockets. They seemed to recognize me after a while, probably from the film Pickpocket King which now must have been screened by every practicing pickpocket in Europe. They did not recognize me instantly; how could they? The film is now two years old and I was doing my rounds alone in Barcelona, not accompanied by Bambi. When they left the compartment where I stood their heads did their usual tilting down, and turning while scrutinizing a male mark as he entered the Metro train. They simply could not turn off their modus operandi, looking for the next victim, and obviously tabulating their chances of going into the man’s pocket. Both females showed all the characteristic behavior, including giving me the finger once the doors to the train closed and they were on the outside. Yes, taunting me, and giving me a message: “we’re on to you, and we know what you’re up to.”
Mobile phone theft
A continuing trend, despite of Apple’s security features and the ability to block future use, is Apple-picking, the slang term for stealing mobile phones. This has grown to be a serious issue all over the world.
Smart phones, and of course especially the coveted iPhones, are a prime target for the pickpockets roaming the streets of Barcelona. Mild temperatures make outdoor restaurants popular nearly year-round and tourists at these venues let their guards down, allowing their expensive iPhones to sit in full view on tables within easy reach for any grab-and-run thief. Many factors make phones easy to steal; they’re slim; they’re usually at the top of women’s handbags for quick access, or in outside jacket pockets where a thief can easily snag them. While a wallet may be secured in a hip pocket with a button, a multi-functioning smart phone is kept easily accessible. All these little details make for uncomplicated extraction even by low-end pickpockets.
Another way to gauge the pickpocketing levels in a city is to learn the number of iPhones stolen daily. It’s fairly easy to acquire this info by simply chatting with management at the local Apple store. When I visited Barcelona’s Apple store, the daytime manager told me that the average was around 80 new iPhones sold during his eight-hour shift, and of these roughly 30 were replacements of just-stolen phones. Considering those phones not immediately replaced, and additional phones sold on the swing shift, that translates to a guesstimate of at least 50 phones stolen every day in Barcelona (in late autumn). This fits in very nicely with other Barcelona pickpocket statistics and with other high-profile European capitals like London, Rome, and Paris.
Obviously these numbers are not precise. They’re estimates and averages but, as a yardstick for pickpocketing activity, quite useful. This is corroborated by the police, who state that the ratio of victims reporting the loss of phones to wallet is three to one—for every wallet stolen, three phones are grabbed.
When you consider the value of the hardware itself, the data in it (passwords and credit card numbers, addresses, access codes, etc), and the ease of grabbing it, this makes sense. In addition, victims often believe it is a futile waste of time to report a stolen wallet, which is unlikely to ever be found with its contents, vs. an expensive and identifiable mobile phone (with an IMEI or, international mobile equipment identity number), which is seen (hoped!) to have a greater likelihood of being traced and returned. Victims also may need a police report for insurance.
Conclusion
My trip to Barcelona was tied to a security lecture for regular travelers, not security professionals. I was eager to know if some of these visitors had already experienced incidents on their first days in Barcelona. I will not identify the group by name or the actual number of hearsay incidents, other than that the ratio of incidents to total number of visitors was better than in years past. In the past I have noticed an incident rate of roughly ten victims per one thousand visitors, now the numbers were significantly fewer.
In conclusion, although this is not a scientific report, I can say with confidence that the Barcelona pickpocket scene today has improved somewhat in terms of safety. Yes, there are still plenty of pickpockets operating in this charming city, but it seems not much worse than most other large cities in Europe with important attractions. What continues to make Barcelona attractive to the thieves is of course the sheer number of tourists, cheap living, and a weak legal system. The most they have to fear is a fine, rather than a lengthy prison sentence.
Pickpockets are free to steal as usual on London’s Tube and trains, but they’ve lost their biggest buyers of smartphones. British Transport Police nabbed 13 gangsters, including the ringleader, in a September 11 pre-dawn raid on multiple locations.
Smartphone theft ring busted
1,000 smart phones were recovered, all wiped clean of data, reset, polished up, boxed, and labeled. The phones were to be shipped to Dubai, eastern Europe, and northern Africa to be sold as new. This scheme reportedly netted the gang about 1.6 million dollars per year.
Excellent work by the British Transport Police and its “Dip Squad!”
However, the pickpockets remain at large. Public transportation passengers in and around London are no safer, and neither are their smartphones. Time to brush up on Pocketology 101 and Purseology 101 for smart-safe storage of valuables.
Actually, I suspect some of the pickpockets may briefly desert the trains and work the streets while “the tip is hot,” as they say. Uniformed and private eyes are on the lookout on the trains and platforms, and in the stations. Think thief. If I were one, I’d cool it on the trains for a week or so.
The pickpockets, doing the grunt-work for the organized crime ring, get paid like any grunt-workers, but enough for them to risk arrest, fines, and brief imprisonment.
The ringleader though, was living the high life in a million-dollar riverside apartment. He’s said to be an Afghan Sikh in his forties. His Audi Q7, parked in the basement garage, contained more than 200 smartphones.
My pet peeve: the persistence of the term “petty” when referring to theft by pickpockets. They’re taking wallets with credit cards they can exploit for thousands of dollars. They’re taking smartphones worth up to a thousand. And they’re doing the grunt-work for a business that rakes in $1.6 million a year.
Chief Superintendent Paul Brogden, leading Operation Magnum, said: “These are not petty criminals. They are in the upper echelons of the criminal network behind the pickpocketing that’s carried out on Tube and rail networks — particularly the West End.”
An employee’s personal phone left unattended in a shop.
Thieves simply walk into stores and steal the unattended personal devices belonging to employees. This is Courtney’s report from Manhattan last month. She works in a furniture store.
Easy Stealing
So get this!!!
I come into work and get settled. My manager is in the back of store fixing a leg on a piece of furniture, and this scruffy guy comes into the store. He starts looking around at prices and asking me questions in very broken English and a little Spanish. I am trying to communicate with him in Spanish the best I can. It appeared he was pretending to be on his cellphone and having a conversation, but something seemed strange.
I bring over the store calculator to show him the price I typed in of each piece he was interested in. He then points at two chairs at the front of the store. I am a bit confused so I walk over there and as I do he takes my iPhone off my desk and walks towards the front of store and he says he wants the lounge chair for $1,200 and he will be back. He rapidly exited the store and down the street. Fucker stole my iPhone!!
He had papers in his hand that he left behind. I called the store across the street and the manager said he knew exactly who I was speaking of. The same guy had stolen his phone, iPad, and laptop a few months ago and it was the same situation! The manager from the other store brought over their security video footage and showed the police who took my report.
Florin and his 13-year-old pal emphasize that they are not pickpockets—they are phone thieves. They steal phones from tabletops, not from people. The distinction may be moot if you were the owner of a phone stolen by Florin & Friend.
Even with a monstrous TV camera aimed at them inches away, the boys spoke openly about their work. Florin even donned a fluffy microphone. As the team’s elder at about 20, he was its tongue-tied spokesman, frustrated by foreign language difficulties. He and the kid spoke Romanian, the kid and Bob spoke in rudimentary French.
We found them on La Rambla again, one month after our first conversation with them. Look closely at their photos. Do these children look suspicious? Would you be concerned about their nearness to you? If you don’t recognize the silent languages of thieves, you’d find them disarming.
Message to readers: Do not leave your smartphone on cafe tables, even while you’re sitting right there.
We’d first spotted Florin, the kid, and another youngster outside a cafe in Barcelona in July. Quick on the draw, I caught them on video as they attempted to steal iPhones from cafe tables, right under the noses of the phone-owners. I’ve already described how Florin & Friends steal smartphones. Like magicians, they practice a refined version of the Postcard Trick.
Returning to Barcelona with a German TV crew (from RTL Punkt 12) in August, we found the boys still at large and at work (no surprise). Having watched Bob Arno on YouTube in the interim, they agreed readily to speak on television. They’re at ease on camera, even eager; yet… naive, as if unaware they’ll be broadcast across the land. Florin ignored the camera, while the kid looked right into it like a professional PR rep pitching viable career options. They showed no discomfort; they did not mug for the camera. Pretty much, they ignored it. Question: How could we fail to ask why they admitted to being thieves on TV.
Florin the phone thief
“I am not pickpocket.” Florin stressed that he doesn’t know a thing about pickpocketing, only about stealing phones from tables. We believed him.
Unfolding paper notes from their back pockets, both boys demonstrated a variety of finger techniques for the under-the-cover grip. Unlike most other thieves we’ve interviewed, neither of these was the slightest concerned about demonstrating thievery moves in public. Must be their youth and inexperience. Perhaps they haven’t yet been in jail. Question: why did we fail to ask if they’d ever been arrested or jailed?
The kids were unhurried and, although they did not appear to be nervous, both were childishly fidgety. Florin frequently scrubbed his face with his palms in frustration, partly understanding our questions in English but unable to respond without his pal’s French translations.
The youngster, all pimply and peachfuzz, lifted his shirt to air his flat belly, his hands flittering around his middle. I take this handsome dusky boy with his sweet smile as a Roma; but not Florin. We don’t often see mixed gangs. Question: why didn’t we ask?
Bob Arno:How many phones do you steal in a day?
Florin: Maybe two, three, four. Sometimes five, sometimes none.
BA: Where do you sell them? Do you have a fence?
F: No, I sell directly to buyers.
BA: What do you get for a phone?
F: 100 to 300 euros, depending on the model. Average €200, older ones €100.
BA: How long have you been in Barcelona?
F: Only six months, but I’ve been in Spain for five years.
BA: Do you think you might try working in France or Germany?
F: Not France, because other groups are already in control there. Not Germany, the police there are too tough. We are afraid of the German police. The police here are no problem.
BA: How many people in Barcelona are expert at this method of stealing phones from tables?
F: One thousand. [The two boys concur.]
BA: How many are from Romania?
F: About one hundred who steal, not just phones from tables. Pickpockets, too.
Despite the midsummer heat, the boys hung on each others shoulders. The affectionate child kept a hand on Florin’s shoulder whenever possible, habitually rubbing his own stomach in an unconscious manner, as if petting a puppy.
So many unanswered (unasked) questions! The impromptu interview is rarely perfect. Complicated by a multitude of factors, we’re usually content, if not triumphant, with what we get. We deal with criminals in our line of work: skittish, cagey, angry, fearful—we never know. To enable any conversation at all, we must firstly make our subjects comfortable. There is tension: while they suss us out, while we figure out our best tactic. One wrong move, one wrong question, and the subject walks. Like Zelig, we tailor our temper and pick a posture commensurate with our quarry. Later we regret, then accept our omissions.
Florin & Friend
At the end of the long interview and exchange of demonstrations, after handshakes and multilingual goodbyes, the boys crossed into the center of La Rambla. With the camera zooming to follow them from a distance, the young crooks disappeared into the unsuspecting tourist crowd. Our kind of thiefhunting means you catch ’em, and you throw ’em back in.
Bob and I have done this repeatedly for 15 years, always with more butterflies and apprehension than confidence. We haven’t let a tv crew down yet (but it’s bound to happen). So, with crew in tow, we resumed our research in Barcelona.
First, since many of the stolen smartphones are Apple iPhones, I visited the brand new Apple Store on Placa Catalunya, presuming that some victims would visit in the hope of retrieving their phones’ serial numbers. I was correct, store manager Mario told me, but “only a few per day. And no, Apple won’t help them obtain their serial numbers.” (You’d have to get to the computer with which you sync the phone, open iTunes, go to Preferences, choose the Devices tab, then hover your curser over the name of the device to see a popup that shows its serial number.)
Apple store, Barcelona
Next I returned to the police station to ask, are you serious? Really, if my phone is stolen, I can’t file a police report without its serial number? The officer on duty tried deflecting my question: “Do you have insurance?” he asked to each of my questions. I persisted until he confirmed: no serial number, no police report. Yes, you can go home and call in the serial number, but the police will not provide a copy of the police report by mail, fax, or email. What good is that?*
While at the police station, I couldn’t resist questioning the line of visitors waiting to report their thefts. iPhone stolen, iPhone stolen, iPhone stolen, etc., and two morose groups reporting that their accommodations had been burglarized. (One, a group of six Latvian students who lost multiple laptops, phones, and iPods, were devastated because as students, they couldn’t afford to replace them.) The victims kept coming and I couldn’t help but notice that the police station welcome mat was, literally, worn out. Pathetic.
One more question, Officer: this refusal to file a report without the phone’s serial number—is it just in Barcelona, or all of Spain? “All of Spain!” the officer assured me.
Barcelona police station entrance, where the welcome mat is literally worn out.
Next, with the RTL tv crew rolling, we traipsed through the Barrio Gotico and Born areas of Barcelona after midnight, swinging a fake iPad. I was terrified for Bob, the carrier and potential victim, due to the reports of violent snatching we’ve recently been hearing. Yet… no takers! We rested and gathered strength on gorgeous tapas and beer, setting out again through the dark lanes and creepy alleys, my brave husband willing to get mugged for television (not for the first time!).
Perhaps we were too large a group (five). Maybe we were just in the right place at the wrong time. Maybe thievery is closed on Monday nights.
Next day, we sat for hours at Cava La Universal, where we’d seen and filmed the clever smartphone thieves. We had a brilliant fake iPhone laid out temptingly on the table—like fresh bait still wriggling.
Immediately the waiter approached and pushed the phone closer to us on the table. “Don’t have it like that,” he warned, “the thieves will get it. They’re very, very fast. They’re very, very good!” We pushed it halfway back and gave him a wink.
Fake iPhone on our cafe table
The tv producer and I chatted and people-watched over coffee while I scrutinized humanity. I saw a few “suspects,” pointing them out to the producer. “Look at those two.” I pointed to “white-shoulders” and a pal as they walked away on La Rambla. They hadn’t come close to us. “Thieves, for sure,” I boldly pronounced. The tv producer believed me without evidence. Or maybe she didn’t.
An hour later Bob came to meet us at the cafe with the other producer and the cameraman. Guess who they had with them? “White shoulders” and his pal. And guess who they were? White-shoulders’ pal was the very phone-thief gang-leader I filmed one month ago! (Tattooed “Born to kill.”) This time, his partner, white-shoulders, was only 13 years old. I hadn’t recognized Born-to-kill as he passed by an hour before. I had only pegged him as a probably thief based on his and his partner’s body language and behavior.
Phone thieves with Bob Arno
Born-to-kill was in good spirits and willing to talk. Even on camera! He said he hadn’t tried to steal my iPhone because it looked fake. Liar! It looks damn real—in fact its case is real, but has a printed display. And anyway, he’d never came close enough to my table to see the iPhone. He and the child had passed at a distance. Born-to-kill’s name is Florin.
More in on this very soon.
*The benefit of filing a police report is that the theft is officially documented (supposedly), helping to show the government and the public the extent of the problem.
Smartphone theft is out of control. Phones are flying off cafe tables right under the noses of their owners. The thieves are nonchalant and diabolical, and I’m going to show you how the steal is done. The perps we just filmed practiced a refined version of the pickpocket’s postcard trick. For cover, they used just a flimsy sheet of paper with an illegible scrawl on it—and they did it one-handed.
Cava La Universal
Bob and I had paused for coffee at a Barcelona cafe. We had just left the Norwegian victims at the police station, along with all the other stolen-iPhone and other smartphone theft victims who wouldn’t be allowed to file a police report. Revived, we paid and got up to leave.
Bob immediately spotted three boys hovering on the perimeter of the cafe. They did not have any pickpocket’s “tools,” like a jacket, cardboard sheet, newspaper, messenger bag, or even a hat. It’s hard to say what made us suspect these boys out of the hundreds of people in the vicinity. We had not been observing them. We simply saw them as suspects immediately. Just experience, I guess.
Danger! Do not leave your smart phone on a cafe table.
Bob spotted them and said “my nine o’clock.” I looked to his left just as they sprang into action. I got my video running in the nick of time. Two of the boys headed for the cafe, each extracting a sheet of paper from under their shirts as they walked. I focused on one of the boys and got right behind him, camera extended blatantly.
He walked up to a table where a tourist couple was relaxing with drinks and, with his left hand only, held his piece of paper over the iPhone sitting in front of them. I could see his fingers under the paper trying to grasp the phone. So did the smartphone theft almost-victim—or rather, he noticed the phone move a bit. He heard it, too, as one end was briefly lifted and slipped back onto the table. He reached for it. The young pickpocket, unperturbed, moved to another table as if to try again, but then reversed and left the cafe.
The young pickpocket tries to nab the phone one-handed under his paper. (Frame grab from video.)
How is it possible to hold a piece of paper with one hand and sneakily snag a phone (or a wallet) with the same hand? We didn’t get it until we watched our video later.
The video also showed that the oldest boy, about 20 with unshaven peach fuzz, had sent in the two youngsters, who worked on adjacent tables almost simultaneously. Both failed in this instance.
Both thieves have just tried and failed to steal iPhones at adjacent cafe tables.
The boys left the cafe and rejoined their friend. As they sauntered away, we were right there with them, demanding they speak with us. In a combination of French and English, they told us they’re Romanian. The two younger boys, pimply and beardless, were 14-16. The youngest-looking claimed to be 15. The oldest of the three, clearly the “controller” of the gang, was pierced and tattooed, the inside of his left wrist proclaiming “Born to kill.”
Surprisingly, the killer provided his email address and posed for a photo with the youngster. The other boy backed away from the pose.
Bob Arno in Barcelona with two of the three “table-top boys.”
We left the three boys and went back to the cafe. The smartphone theft almost-victims were still there, still relaxed, as if they were almost ripped off every day. Bob and I introduced ourselves and asked them what they’d seen. They had focused on the note, “something about money and eat,” the Belgian man said, “and he kept pointing to the word gracias.”
Aha! The almost-victims had seen something subtle which we couldn’t see from behind—a gesture so casually performed they hadn’t thought anything of it. What they described was a trick worthy of a world-class magician. Masterful misdirection.
Bob and I are impressed by the devilish simplicity of the one-handed technique. Although we watched the boys fail, with practice these teenagers will turn a blithe deception into a powerful thievery tool.
Dear Readers: do not leave your valuables on cafe table tops! Now you see it—now you don’t. These thieves are magicians.
The sunburned almost-victims tell us how they they thwarted the theft of their iPhone.
I have over fifty years’ experience watching magicians, mentalists, con artists, thieves, and financial criminals executing their ruses to fool, bamboozle, or divert attention from reality. Yes, I’m blasé when it comes to deceptive moves, be they performed by skillful politicians or close-up magicians at the Magic Castle.
But occasionally even I get taken in. In the case of the one-handed smartphone theft in Barcelona, which must be attempted hundreds of times a day, I could not immediately figure out the exact moves of the young Romanian pickpocket (whom we filmed in action), even though I replayed the video of his attempt over and over. Granted, the seven seconds of footage was from behind and wide-angle, and all the finer details were lost. It infuriated me that I couldn’t see or figure out the “tipping point” of the exercise.
Even replaying the interview with the mark didn’t shed light on the dexterity of the thieves, or their technique, until I played close attention to a small detail of the mark’s re-enactment of the thief’s approach, and the positions of his hands. It suddenly hit me—WOW—how simple; and yet how effective. And how absolutely insignificant the gesture would be to any victim sitting at a table sipping coffee with a smartphone (or wallet) on the table.
Yet, without that two-second move, the one-handed steal could never be perfected. These young, unsophisticated thieves, through practice, have accomplished a sort of fluid elegance that they repeat day after day, hour in hour out. It wreaks havoc on the celebrated Barcelona charm visitors experience as they people-watch over a drink or a coffee on La Rambla.
And no, we will not reveal the actual move! It would spread among all thieves who read our stories like weeds in a strawberry patch.
Barcelona police are turning away theft victims who come to report the theft of their phones. Why? The victims can’t provide the stolen phones’ serial numbers (duh). In three minutes, we saw three separate victims of theft prohibited from filing official police reports.
I wish we’d surveyed the rest of the victims waiting in line. Doubtless some lost wallets full of cash, but smart phones are the hot item for thieves this year, and Barcelona Police aren’t going to let them inflate their theft statistics.
The more I dwell on this, the madder I get. These are a subset of victims, already upset, who bother to make the trek to the remote police station to file official reports. They need these reports for their insurance claims. But they don’t have access to records of their electronic devices’ serial numbers while on holiday and Barcelona Police know it.
Now, with a brand new Apple store having just opened last week, stolen-iPhone victims might be in a bit of luck if Apple will provide the information the police require. If those victims have time to go across town to the Apple store, wait for employees to access their account histories, then return to the police station. Nice vacation!
When police make it impossible to file an official theft report, they tamper with statistics. The motivation is clear: what city doesn’t want lower crime stats? What city doesn’t want to show the effectiveness of its police department?
And what city desperately needs to show lower pickpocketing statistics than Barcelona? I get it.
Three stolen-iPhone victims in three minutes. Let’s extrapolate on the conservative side and say three in ten minutes. That’s 18 an hour, or what, 200 a day? More? Fewer? Impossible to say but “a lot” would be accurate. Police translators are only on duty ten hours a day, if I remember correctly, so reports from foreigners would be concentrated during those hours. I believe 200 smart-phone theft victims showing up each day at the Mossos d’Esquadra (Barcelona’s Catalan police station) is conservative. That’s 200 reports of theft not filed. Per day.
I didn’t consider this possibility when I wrote 6,000 Thefts Per Day on Barcelona Visitors. Granted, smart phones weren’t the hot target they are today. But I knew that Barcelona Police had other methods to thwart the filing of theft reports: limited hours of available translators; bouncing victims from one police station to another, demanding they come back in a few hours… Still, numbers in the hundreds of thousands are admitted by Barcelona Police as reports successfully filed by pickpocket and bag snatch victims.
We know we can’t trust those numbers. The police admit to 9,000 violent muggings in the first ten months of 2011. That’s 30 per day. And 2,000 bag-snatches in the same period—6 per day. But how many pickpocketings? How many other thefts? And how many people bother or try to file police reports? And of those, how many succeed?
I know—I’ve got far more questions than answers. I will revisit the police station in a few weeks and report back.
