Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/20/the-9-levels-of-pickpocketing-explained-by-a-magician.html
…
8 Likes
A pickpocket steals your wallet. A great pickpocket steals your pants. A god pickpocket steals your kidneys.
7 Likes
I don’t imagine I’m immune to being pickpocketed but he would not get to touch me a second time, because I would back the fuck away after the first one. All that shoulder-grabbing and wrist-fondling and too-close chumminess is just weird. I don’t even let friends touch me that much, let alone a stranger.
7 Likes
Yeah, the only ones that would actually work if you’re not the sort of person that lets a stranger paw you all over are the table steal, possibly outer jacket pocket, and the wallet from the back pocket (where nobody should be keeping their stuff anyway, for exactly that reason). However, he’s pretty clear that this is more about stage magic than crime prevention, so real life thievery isn’t really that relevant.
4 Likes
While I was on vacation in Italy, I was in awe of the number of tourists I saw walking around with unzipped purses, bags, and backpacks. I would get their attention and point it out when it was really blatant, but I don’t think thieves there even have to be skilled. Literally I could have lifted plenty of things.
As well, I was handed dozens of cellphones to take people’s photos in front of notable scenic places. Some I solicited, when it was clear there was a family dynamic where it would be of value, but plenty of others just outright asked. Wild.
4 Likes
They probably saw you were a tourist yourself and therefore safe to hand a phone to?
3 Likes
That social conditioning of what a ‘good’ person looks like is pretty easy for a bad person to take advantage of.
7 Likes
I went to Italy and Greece with a girlfriend and we’d often be asked to take photos for other tourists, and asked a few times ourselves. It never seemed like that much of a risk, because what are the chances someone you picked at random is going to run away with your phone right in front of you, while your full attention is on them because you’re posing for them to take a picture? That’s like the complete opposite of pickpocketing.
There were a couple suspicious things that happened which I assume were attempts at some kind of distraction or scam, though nothing ended up stolen. In Athens a couple little kids came up to us at a cafe and talked to us (though in Greek, so I’m not sure what they said), and one of them “accidentally” knocked over a drink into my girlfriend’s lap in a way that sure looked deliberate to me. In Rome, there were people with weirdly huge old-fashioned looking cameras around the Trevi Fountain who kept pestering us to take our photos (maybe with our phone rather than their cameras, which weren’t Polaroids, just big), insisting it was free… I’m not exactly sure what the scam was, but it raised a million red flags and we were steadfast in refusing.
4 Likes
Hadn’t heard of this guy, but a great video. I knew of Apollo Robbins, and was shocked when I saw him - laughingly as a pickpocket - on Brooklyn 99. His act with the poor suckers at NBC is always a fun watch.
(sorry for potato quality - not sure where the good links went)
3 Likes
I saw a street theft in Barcelona, just off La Rambla, a couple asked a touristy type to take a picture on their phone, he took a couple and said “Put your bags down because it would look better, now say cheese” – someone swiped their bags and ran off down the street, the couple looked at each other and then down the street – in that instant the photographer shot off in the opposite direction.
The photo “scam” is more of an aggressive begging ploy, the taking of the photograph is free, getting the photograph in your hand is only achieved after a tip is extracted (and sometimes the photo is not of you). Beware having your photo taken with centurions by the Colosseum (I am not sure if that is still a thing).
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
