Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/21/man-with-selfie-stick-films-pi.html
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Look at how those two scumbags zero in on the couple and then keep stalking them. They’re so greedy and lazy that it’s not surprising they got pinched.
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This looks like a sting. Just based on her posture and general lack of awareness; the woman in the black hat is practically baiting them to rob her.
Not to blame the victim, but certainly a reminder to be vigilant.
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Interesting that the Spanish policeman first starts talking to the Asian couple looking in English.
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They both get the “it’s completely obvious what I’m doing” award.
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Intellectually, I know it’s not any kind of horrible crime to wear a Panama hat and a Señor Frog t-shirt while alternating taking pictures from your selfie stick and the camera around your neck and pointing out landmarks with a fully extended finger as you hop on and off the tourist bus. It might be gauche, but it’s not malicious, and who am I to tell people how to vacation.
But if I were a pickpocket, I’d hope I’d have the professional savvy not to target someone ringing as many “oblivious tourist” bells as this couple. Maybe this wasn’t a sting, but it should have been a sting.
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I was impressed by how relentless the pickpockets are. It’s a bit scary. I’ve been pretty paranoid in major urban centers since a few experiences when I lived in China. They can be really slick. For example: my then-wife and I were at the PO. No one else in there. She puts her wallet on the counter to hand something to the clerk. I look at the clerk walk away, then at the wallet. Then I look toward the clerk and back. No wallet. Still no one there. That was slick. Also, in the same city (Wuhan), a colleague and I are out sightseeing. We sit down to chat, and he goes for his cigarettes. The bottom of his bag has been slit open. Luckily his money and documents were elsewhere.
So, eh, this couple, they look clumsy from the camera’s perspective. But this couple had no clue they were there. And I didn’t notice other people catching on either. Maybe I missed it. I thought the napkin was a nice touch.
Busloads of Chinese tourists show up in Vienna and European other cities and do the exact same thing. I’m not trying to be a jerk. Just reporting what I’ve seen. I bet the local pickpockets swarm them.
I’m probably a stereotypical ugly American in a lot of ways, my love of air conditioning and whining about its absence probably being high on the list.
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I don’t mind gawking foreign tourists at all when I’m at home here in ‘Merica. In fact, I’m vaguely flattered on behalf of all of us. Hoooo-wee, them folks come all th’ way from China just to see us!
It’s only when I see stereotypically American tourists abroad that I want to die. Purely internalized self-loathing, since I too am probably indistinguishable from them as far as the locals are concerned.
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i think that’s part of the plan tho. they take their time. they get the couple used to them being right next to them. the one woman gets used to the other’s cadence, and is trying to figure out what’s in the bag. they confer and figure there’s something worth the trouble there.
i particularly like how the man uses his body to block what’s going on from the view of other people walking right next to them.
this is why i can’t wait till we can store all our important data in a socket in our head. 80 gigabytes! never get pickpocketed again
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Too bad they can’t make the stick invisible in real life, because carrying around a selfie stick advertises “Hey everybody look at us, we’re tourists!”
Maybe everybody else has already figured this out, but the thing that triggered the “FAKE!” button for me was that the pickpockets are always center frame–which is inconsistent with inadvertent recording.
But apparently there is such a thing as a 360-degree camera–which would both keep the selfie stick from appearing in the picture and explain how the pickpocket couple remained center frame throughout this edited version of the full video.
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I don’t think they are always center-frame, but logically they would be for a lot of the time because their intended victims are also center frame-- that’s where the money is.
Watch what the camera view does at 1:15, following the pickpockets, not the victims.
It was shot as a 360 degree video that was edited after the fact to show the relevant field of view.
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English is the Lingua franca of the world. Many Chinese people would learn and know english. It is a required subject in school.
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At least you don’t talk in a language which sounds like a typewriter thrown down the stairs and don’t wear white socks with sandals to briefs, and Jack Wolfskin outdoor fashion. I mean, US Americans are a pestilence of their own finding everyone and everything awesome and wonderful, but the people I am identified want to see the manager to complain about the locals who block their view, insolently.
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Sounded to me like he started off trying to get their attention by saying ‘hola’ repeatedly, then switched when they didn’t respond.
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To paraphrase the famous saying…caution, two racist statements don’t make a right.
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I can’t find it, but isn’t there a cctv video from several years back that shows a guy “fishing” over a wall to steal items from people standing around on the sidewalk?
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