Have you ever had your pocket picked?

An old man gets up every morning, goes out in front of his house, and sprinkles a white powder up and down the street.

One day, a neighbour who has watched his routine for many years confronts him. “What is this powder you sprinkle on the street every morning?”

“It's special elephant powder,” the old man said. “It keeps the elephants away.”

“But,” says the neighbour. “Everybody knows that there are no elephants around here.”

“Works well, doesn't it?”

It occurs to me that, like so many things in life, I have spent an awful lot of time and energy guarding against the advances of pickpockets. Yet I have never knowingly had anything lifted from my pockets.

Has the art of the pickpocket been lost to crude bag-snatching?

never happened to me, but my wallet did get stolen from the kitchen table while i was upstairs, the thieves demolished the door and i was thinking those were "regular random street noises" lol.

i think if you wanna get pick pocketed you have to visit Rome and walk around for a day with your wallet clearly in sight.

my mum once saw someone trying to reach into her handbag on the tube but stopped it in time.

and yes re:rome also add barcelona just walk down las ramblas after 10pm or so

also that's less pickpocket more swamped by a group of people and them just ravaging your pockets

My dad's been pickpocketed in Prague. Those wily continentals keep the flame alive.

I was on the tube once, incredibly hungover, straphanging listlessly and a bloke came up to me holding a fiver. 'This is yours,' he said. I thanked him in a slightly perplexed fashion and he said I should take more care of my stuff. He then, with a series of movements that practically had me dancing the tango with him, took everything out of every pocket in my jacket and also my rear trouser pockets (wallet, keys, fags, notes, pen) without me actually seeing him do it at any stage. Then he gave them back to me, winked, and got off at Piccadilly Circus, no doubt to rinse out tourists.

It was magnificent.

A retired magician in a pub once came up to the table and offered to do a trick, as he sometimes did, and took my watch off me without knowing.

I should add that I'm more or less in full possession of my senses and faculties.

I was pickpocketed on the Paris metro a couple of years ago. It was on the 13 at maybe 8:45 AM on a weekday, and thus horribly horribly crowded. I had my monthly metro pass in my back pocket, buttoned. Someone rubbed against my ass, that's all I felt, but I didn't think it unusual right then because we were so tightly packed together. Once I got off at my stop I felt for my pass, and blah.

I was on the Paris Metro last week. There was a short sweaty dude and an even shorter, sweatier dude with him. They were completely noticeable from the moment they walked on. They were annoying. They stood too close. Their hands kept touching other peoples' hands on the pole. They were seemingly just weird and oblivious dudes. When they got off, a woman told my mom that they were pickpockets. She checked her purse and her wallet was gone.

Two years ago I was recovering from a hernia operation and had finally decided to "go out". I was moving incredibly slowly. Honestly just sort of shuffling along. At midnight I was walking, alone, in my neighborhood, to a party, in my old-man hernia way, and an enormous bald man sprang fleetly over to me, reached clumsily into my back pocket, snatched my wallet and bounded off. Again. "Hey!" I shouted, shuffling a bit in his direction. "Hey!"

Should be "bounded off again." Whatever.

I don't really get where to keep things like wallets in places where pickpocketing is a threat. I'm living in Paris again now, and I'm just wearing a dopey American-style waist money belt in which I'm keeping metro tickets and cash and things like that. But it seems so dopey and surely other people don't do that? But they must be able to avoid getting pickpocketed much of the time, at least. I guess a big thing is learning to identify on a train who the threats are, though when I got hit two years ago I couldn't have chosen to avoid shady characters since it was a sardine can ride.

Money clip, front pocket?

Or you could always be wearing a dinner jacket, with an inside breast pocket.

I actually have no idea.

if they're proper pickpockets they won't appear a shady character

there was this one time at the bus stop two kids came to show me "card tricks" it was amazing i knew they were going to pick pocket i kept both hands in my pockets until like this one second and when my hand went back in all the credit cards were outside my wallet and i was like HOLY SHIT the kids laughed (nothing was stolen). that was good.

I was pickpocketed in Berlin about 18 years ago, which was the first in a long chain of events which led to me a. Getting hit by a car at 40 mph and b. Getting a criminal record in Germany. Hope the thief has had a commensurate amount of bad karma over this.

??

When they got off, a woman told my mom that they were pickpockets.

Ah, the old helpful-woman-blaming-two-sweaty-dudes routine. Classic pickpocket tactic that.

Dinner jacket is probably the best bet. I should learn to dress like that!

Relatedly: where do you keep a cell phone in these sorts of places? I imagine London must have issues with this too? And probably NY or any place with a thriving metro system.

also wow @ Meg

I keep my cell phone in my trouser pocket.. doesn't everyone?

Guy asked me for a light in Dry Bar in Manchester about 10 years ago - he refused to use the lighter himself, so I was doing it (which seemed strange) and he then completely blatantly put his hand in my coat pocket, so I just gave him an incredulous look and he looked a bit sheepish and ran out of the bar. Without my wallet.

I was just thinking that mobiles would be easily pickpocket-able in pockets too. I don't yet have a mobile here so just I'm fishing for ideas.

The way to beat that is to always be texting or talking. Which you can do in the Metro.

hah true! A very Parisian solution to be sure...

he refused to use the lighter himself, so I was doing it (which seemed strange) and he then completely blatantly put his hand in my coat pocket

It's always a good trick to piss off people who are holding a naked flame 2 inches from your face!

trousers pocket. my phone is a nokia 8310, they're welcome to it.

i actually had a motorola V3 stolen before, from a bus stop in fact (we were talking about jackie chan films and this guy had a fake martial arts fight with me and then my phone was gone). i had never been happier about losing a phone as that phone was so shit.

I have a jacket (not a dinner jacket, a casual suede coat type thing) with an inside chest pocket, which I love but end up only putting my mp3 player there because there isn't room for that and a phone and a wallet and a card wallet and my keys and...

But non-dinner-jackets with inside pockets do exist, anyway.

Never been picked, never so far as I know been close to being picked. I'm quite uptight and suspicious anyway and have the kind of radar that spots obvious threats hundreds of yards away, and am always a bit incredulous when I see people fall into those traps. Sometimes over-friendly over-familiar types spot this, resent it, and tell me I need to relax and be more open to people. And maybe I could sometimes do with a bit of that, but it is The Most Annoying Thing In The World to be told.

It's always a good trick to piss off people who are holding a naked flame 2 inches from your face!

He'd obviously clocked me as a soft student (pretty much the only people in DryBar around then were wide-eyed Factory-obsessed students and actual Manc hardmen) who wouldn't try anything. Which was correct. But still, rubbishest pickpocket about.

??
― ken "save-a-finn" c (ken c), Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:40 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Chain of events went, briefly:

1. Get pocket picked while on German exchange trip, age 14
2. Have neither money nor telephone number of host family, which was in wallet
3. Attempt to walk to host family's flat, alone, late at night
4. Get lost and walk round strange streets increasingly panicky and upset
5. Miraculously find host family's flat, which just happens to be the other side of major dual carriageway
6. In relieved hurry to get home, step out into road and fail to remember that in Germany cars drive on other side of road
7. Get hit by car
8. Get arrested (apparently in Germany this is the done thing when you've just been run over) and charged with jaywalking and obstructing the traffic
9. Get admitted to hospital three hours later

One time I bumped into a weird intense-looking guy on the street after leaving a movie theater, and realized a couple minutes later that my wallet was gone. After totally freaking out and running around the neighborhood trying to find the guy and shake him down, it occurred to me that my wallet probably fell out in the movie theater, and I went back in and found it.

NB I remember nothing of steps 7 and 8 -- no.6 was at 11pm and no.9 was at 2am so I guess I should think myself lucky that the worst thing that happened in the missing three hours was being questioned by police whilst in shock, concussed and bleeding heavily from a deep cut on the head

x-post to self

Man: Least funny "Curb yr Enthusiasm" yet!

maybe learning how they do it could help prevent it... :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIPiRPk0VzI&feature=related

(a masterpiece of cinema direction in that sequence btw)

some guys in Addis Ababa tried to pick my pocket once... almost exactly a year ago. They were like pickpockets from central casting, behaving exactly as the guidebook warns you.

My dad once told me that a colleague of his, when travelling in continental train stations, would stop every few steps and do random karate moves to left or right as a way of deterring pickpockets.

Ha, yr dad was in the French Sûreté?

as he sometimes did, and took my watch off me without knowing.

seriously, how does this work?

It happens during a demonstration of another trick or a walkthrough of one you just did. Basically it involves grabbing the wrist very obviously with both hands. The patter and rare moment of a magician explaining another trick is the huge misdirection you need for flicking the catch, the watch just slides off. It's a flick & a twist, takes about a second for the work to be done, the rest is filler.

i think i saw a 20/20 about this when i was around 13. it led me to believe there is no pickpocketing in the u.s. and that only gypsies do it elsewhere. and that they always trick you by touching you somewhere on your body so you don't notice what they are doing somewhere else.

my sister said in peru it is not uncommon for people to just grab the cell phone out of your hand on public transport/on the street, etc. when she goes out, she carries all her money/keys in a small change purse that is held between her body and the waistline of her pants. or, if anything's in her pocket, she always keeps her hand in the pocket, too.

i was in a busy marketplace in arequipa and felt something on my neck. as i turned to look, i heard/felt the zipper on the outside pocket of my purse opening but was able to react quickly enough to fend off the pickpocket. from there on, i just flipped the purse so the zipper pocket was facing in.

my favorite pickpocket attempt has to be in paris, though. standing at a street vendor, waiting for crepes, and a little kid came up to chat up my father. he then tweaked his nipples (!!!) in an attempt to disorient him so he could grab his wallet, but it didn't work.

I like GamalielRatsey's story. It sounds like it should have actually happened on the tube in the 19th century.

i got pickpocketed by cambodian ladyboys in phnom phen - i grabbed one of them and demanded my wallet back - when i got it it was bereft of money so i held on to her until i got my cash back - i kept shaking her and money came out of the bra out of pockets - it was stashed in like five different places - they managed to hold onto like $11

damn that story seems symbolic of something

sounds like a creepy game show

my jeans are so tight I can't even get my own wallet out of the fucking things, so heaven help the would be thief charlatan or knave

"my jeans are so tight I can't even get my own wallet out of the fucking things"

a professional pickpocket can cut yr pants with razor blade and take it.

this and other curious knowledge in this obscure and interesting book:

http://i4.tinypic.com/105azo3.jpg

ah so THIS is why they came back into fashion xp

you're right actually zeno. a few years back I was travelling through eastern europe and a guy was acting suspiciously on the subway. when I reached my stop I went to take my wallet out of my pocket and realised he'd sawed my leg off. of course I tried to chase him only to find he had handcuffed me to the seat.

amateurs - they didn't need the handcuffs if they had already sawn your legs off. the handcuffs are just unnecessary expense and if they had only read chapter 1 of Techniques of the Professional PICKPOCKET by Wayne B. Yeager they would have known this.

nope...i wear my wallet in the front pocket, and people go "durrr why don't you wear it in your back pocket"...well cuz it's fat, I hate sitting on it, and if someone tries to pick pocket me I can see them in front of me and they're unlikely to try and do it cuz they might accidentally touch my weewee

I use an all-ett which I keep in my front pocket, so I don't really worry about this...yet. until someone demonstrates a sneaky way to steal a wallet from a front pocket.

my buddy was telling me his parents were in Malta (or maybe Italy, can't remember) a year or two ago. They sat down next to each other in an internet cafe. His mum draped her bag over the back of the chair she was on. Two British girls sat at computers on either side of them. The girls kept leaning back to talk to eachother around my buddy's parents. The girls got up and left after a while.
Turns out the whole time they kept leaning back to chat they both had scissors or something and were cutting the straps of her bag. Bag gone.

I have never been pickpocketed - despite having lived in paris (where a lot of these stories seem to be coming from.) I've never been mugged or burgled or anything really. One guy stole a crepe out of my hand once.

In Melbourne ppl will just knife you or kick the shit out of you and then steal your phone/bag while you lie bleeding on the road.

Also "His mum draped her bag over the back of the chair she was on."

I would never ever do this. I put my bag on the floor firmly between my feet, sometimes with strap around ankle. I'm uber-paranoid. When I see women standing idly on the tram with their handbag hanging off their arm, top open and wallet in plain view, I want to take it and wave it in their face just to make a point.

ha yeah but this is a late middleaged woman from FN QLD who knows no better

Ahh, ok that makes more sense :) My aunty from Bega never used to lock her car doors and things, for similar reasons. Country folk.

yeah in China when you go to restaurants to eat you put your bag directly behind you on your chair, and then one of the waitstaff brings over a seat covering which goes over the seatback and the bag. not sure if this is just to disguise more dastardly deeds, though

I got pick pocketed in Paris a few weeks ago. I was really drunk, and him and his friend were dressed dapper and when he say I saw what he had done he gave me back the wallet and had a cigarette with me. Was confusing.

Perhaps you were supposed to tip them.

him and his friend were dressed dapper

http://www.channel4.com/news/media/images/Channel4/news/articles/11_suspects_k.jpg

They get about.

Actually looking at that photo now - which I haven't really, they don't look that dapper at all.

I've never been pickpocketed, though I was mugged outside my subway station in NYC a couple years ago. I'd rather be pickpocketed :( The mugging was frightening.

I think this is a common preference.

In Melbourne ppl will just knife you or kick the shit out of you and then steal your phone/bag while you lie bleeding on the road.

I thought Melbourne was pretty safe. Compared to other big cities anyway. Apart from Chopper Read, obviously.

It depends who you are and where you go, probably. Some outer suburbs are piss-frighteningly dangerous and I wouldn't go near them in daylight with a bouncer next to me.

The city on weekend nights in certain spots has become pretty hairy - a lot of young kids from the poor suburbs come into town and start fights for no reason, or for stupid reasons like "punch that curry muncher for a bet". They aren't scared of bouncers or cops, and there's been a big upspike in bashings and knife attacks in the last couple years. The govt and media and handwringers are blaming our very lax alcohol laws. Me, I think coke and meth have more to do with it myself.

And having said all that Ive never so much as been mugged in the 17 years Ive lived here, but I dont go out on the town on weekends much any more (and when I did there's no way I'd dress obviously "gothy", for risk of being leered at or groped by some drunk freaks)

^same with Brisbane, Trayce. I reckon it's actually safer in fortitude valley ('notorious dodgy spot') than in the city itself. Lots of random acts of violence.
Also glassings are very hip these days in brisbane nightclubs.

xp