Pickpockets in Pisa

Pickpockets in Pisa, on the way to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On a beautiful summer day, as seen from behind a cherry vendor.
Pickpockets in Pisa, on the way to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. On a beautiful summer day, as seen from behind a cherry vendor.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa on a beautiful summer day, as seen from behind a cherry vendor.

Pickpockets in Pisa are so active we don’t even have to go looking for them. They’re right there. Are they everywhere? It seems so!

We arrived by train, stepped out of the station, and filmed the growing crowd at the bus stop across the street where the “red” bus stops before going to the Leaning Tower.

By the time the light changed and we crossed the street, the bus had arrived. Everyone heading for the Leaning Tower mobbed the bus doors. We panned our camera across the scene and inadvertently filmed a pickpocketing-in-progress.

What we got on camera took six seconds. The victim was a Japanese woman on her way to board the bus. Her husband and four children were somewhat behind her.

This is the most common scenario. The pickpocket hits during the boarding, hoping that you’ll get on the bus and he/she won’t, putting instant distance between you and him/her.

In this case, the victim felt something—she wasn’t sure what—so didn’t board.

Pickpockets in Pisa: Before the theft: three of the victim's children are standing at left.
Before the theft: three of the victim’s children are standing at left.

Pickpockets in Pisa

The pickpockets were a girl and a woman. They crowded in behind the Japanese victim, who felt something and momentarily clutched her bag. At this point, analyzing the movements of the thieves on the video we got, we can only infer that the older woman dipped into the victim’s gaping shoulder bag, took the wallet, and extracted the cash from it. The victim whipped around as the pickpockets strolled away with exaggerated nonchalance. The victim hadn’t identified who the thieves were—or if there were thieves at all.

Pickpockets in Pisa: The pickpocket, in blue t-shirt, moves in behind her victim, who is about to board the bus. You can barely see her in the pink dress. The victim's son is in glasses, upper left.
The pickpocket, in blue t-shirt, moves in behind her victim, who is about to board the bus. You can barely see the victim in the pink dress. The victim’s son is in glasses, upper left.
Pickpockets in Pisa: The pickpocket's accomplice (and perhaps her daughter) is in pink tights and plaid shirt. She moves in behind the pickpocket.
The pickpocket’s accomplice (and perhaps her daughter) is in pink tights and plaid shirt. She moves in behind the blue shirted pickpocket.
Pickpockets in Pisa: The victim (in pink) looks around as the two thieves (at left) saunter away.
The victim (in pink) looks around as the two thieves (at left) cooly saunter away.

“Did they steal from you?” Bob asked, still filming.

The victim was utterly baffled. The thieves had taken her wallet, extracted all the cash, and returned the wallet.

“Why would they return it,” she wondered. She repeatedly opened her wallet to inspect the contents in disbelief. The bus departed while she and her family huddled, trying to understand what had just happened.

Pickpockets in Pisa: The victim takes inventory of her wallet as her family watches.
The victim takes inventory of her wallet as her family watches.

The victim said she had just purchased bus tickets for her family, and therefore knew that she’d had about a hundred euros. She said that that was the reason she hadn’t yet zipped her bag closed.

So why would the pickpocket return the victim’s wallet with all its credit cards and ID? We’re hearing of that occurance more and more. Yet, we know that all those documents can be monetized. They could be money in the hand of the thief.

Well, if you get your wallet back, and all its contents except the cash, you’re much less likely to bother filing a police report. You know a police report will take hours out of your day and you know you’ll never get your cash back. So what’s the point?

Pickpockets in Pisa: The victim with her stolen-and-returned wallet.
The victim with her stolen-and-returned wallet.

Meanwhile, the pickpockets in Pisa aren’t fingered. They don’t get arrested or fined. And that’s one more incident that never makes it into statistics. The city’s happy about that, and so are the police. If the pickpocket didn’t steal more than €400, and didn’t steal your property (wallet, documents), nothing will happen to her. It’s as if it never happened. That’s why I say that pickpockets are an invisible species.

“Pickpockets are an enigmatic breed. Most are never seen or felt by their victims—or anyone else. Mystery men and women (and boys and girls) moving freely among us, they’re as good as invisible. So how can they be quantified?”

Pickpockets in Pisa. The pickpockets in discussion. Mother and daughter?
The pickpockets in discussion. Mother and daughter?

And so, pickpocketing remains the travel industry’s dirty little secret. Unreported incidents = low statistics. And pickpocketing retains the ridiculous label: “petty theft.

Sigh.

Pickpockets in Pisa. Another family examines a wallet at the bus stop. Were they also victims? We didn't ask them.
Another family examines a wallet at the bus stop. Were they also victims? We didn’t ask them.
Pickpockets in Pisa. Pisa train station
Pisa train station

© Copyright 2008-2013 Bambi Vincent. All rights reserved.

Street crime in Rome

Near Piazza Navona, Rome
Near Piazza Navona, Rome

In a quick visit to Rome last month, Bob and I found it pretty quiet on the streets, theft-wise. Granted, we only spent a few hours on the prowl, but given our 15 years experience thiefhunting in Rome, we know where to look. We usually find an eclectic mix of Italian, Roma, North African, and East European thieves, plus many we don’t speak to, many who won’t tell, and many who lie.

On this visit, we spent at least half an hour shadowing a mixed-gender threesome halfheartedly preying. As they trudged along the tourist trail, one of their members entered each souvenir shop along the way and stood among the customers. Another spent time among the postcard stands. They were an extraordinarily scruffy group, whose appearance certainly limits their access and proximity to targets. After a lethargic effort, they disbanded at a bus stop. We engaged two of them as they scattered, and learned that they were Polish.

Gang of three in Rome
Gang of three in Rome

Other than this group, we saw very few “suspects” in the Metro, on Bus 64, hanging around at the usual favorite bus stops, or on the streets. Termini, the main train station, was littered with dodgy characters, as usual, but we didn’t linger, preferring to survey the scene outside the station.

Are Italians finally fed up enough to do something about crime? At least crime committed by immigrants, it seems. A couple of telling surveys reported in The Guardian hint to a new, anti-immigrant climate in Italy, and especially anti-Gypsy.

81% of Italian respondents said they found all Gypsies, Romanian or not, “barely likeable or not likeable at all”, a greater number than the 64% who said they felt the same way about non-Gypsy Romanians.

and

Romanians were among the 268 immigrants rounded up in a nationwide police crackdown on prostitution and drug dealing this week, after new prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s likening of foreign criminals to “an army of evil”.

Word has been out on the street for some time. “Jaga” and Ana, a Romanian pickpocket couple we interviewed at length in Rome in 2003, told us they were planning to move to Spain, where it is easier to live and to conduct their business. They are not the only thieves to express this sentiment, which helps explain why Spain has such a preponderance of pickpockets.

Leaning tower of Pisa and cherries for sale
Leaning tower of Pisa and cherries for sale

Pisa, too, was empty of the sticky-fingered women and children we usually find at the train station, bus station, and all around the Piazza del Duomo. Locals there said they had noticed the pickpockets’ disappearance about a month ago.

But just when we thought Italy might be cracking down on crime, we heard last month’s terrible story of the American couple served drugged cappuccino in a Rome train station, where they were then robbed. Upon awaking, the man stumbled onto the tracks and was killed by a train. The article continues:

Gangs using narcotic spray to carry out train robberies are also on the rise in Italy, police said. The gangs board sleeper trains and drug passengers in couchettes before hopping off at stations with valuables.

Pizza by weight in Rome
Pizza by weight in Rome

I tend to think the crime lull we sensed in our short survey of Rome’s previous hot spots was actually an anomaly. Or the balloon has been squeezed and the thieves are just elsewhere. I hope that we soon find another opportunity to re-investigate Rome.

Sadly, though, porcini season will be over by our next visit. There is nothing like porcini pizza, especially in Pisa.