Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/03/watch-this-glamorous-group-of.html
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So was there a third person filming then? I thought the lady on the right had a selfie stick - but no - her hand was empty. What witch craft is this?
Pick pockets are slick. I’ve seen close up magicians who can take off your watch or even your tie with out you knowing.
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I thought it was funny watching Sneaky Pete how they made it seem like pretty much anywhere someone’s doing this all the time. Thought it was absurd but maybe it’s right.
I think the woman on the left was holding the stick with her left hand and switched to her right. You just can’t see it since, well…
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It’s a dangerous world out there.
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just shows that anyone can be a scumbag.
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So a cross body selfie? I thought she was holding hands with the other lady…
Though this is the 2nd video I’ve seen like this. Is this a thing now where tourist just record themselves walking around? Am I out of touch?
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My guess is that they de-coupled when the other woman detected she’d been robbed.
And yes, selfie sticks are everywhere!
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We need to deploy these pickpockets against Proud Boys and other fascist groups whenever they show up.
I imagine they could amass quite a stack of photo IDs.
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I was in Rome in a crowded subway car when I felt a tug on my back pocket, and as I turned around my wallet fell to the floor. My movement obviously had knocked it out of the pickpocket’s hand and they couldn’t stoop down on the crowded train. When I turned around I couldn’t really stoop over either, so I put my foot on the wallet and just stared at the nicely dressed forty-something lady standing directly behind me. We stood there for two stops, staring at each other, me standing on my wallet, her holding her large purse closed with both hands in front of her body.
Of course, I couldn’t prove anything. Could have been someone else, reaching around her, but I don’t think so. Eventually, the press lessened slightly, and she backed between two people behind her who immediately closed up and I couldn’t really see her anymore. When the crowd finally thinned out, she was gone.
Moral of the story - take your f**king wallet out of your back pocket before you get on the subway in Rome, I guess.
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that was quite an impressive coordinated performance. something tells me this wasn’t their first target.
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I got a card carrier that holds up to five cards and is extremely slim. I always keep it in my front pocket and those five cards are enough for just about any situation. If I know I’ll need cash or some other card(s), I bring those in a money clip. I never use my back pocket anymore due to this kind of stuff.
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These were not first time girls.
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Apollo Robbins picked the pocket of a Secret Service agents, in front of President Carter.
He is probably best known for an encounter with Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail in 2001. While Carter was at dinner, Robbins struck up a conversation with several of his Secret Service men. Within a few minutes, he had emptied the agents’ pockets of pretty much everything but their guns. Robbins brandished a copy of Carter’s itinerary, and when an agent snatched it back he said, “You don’t have the authorization to see that!” When the agent felt for his badge, Robbins produced it and handed it back. Then he turned to the head of the detail and handed him his watch, his badge, and the keys to the Carter motorcade.
His YouTube videos are absolutely spooky to behold.
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I did the same a few years ago. I also notice that my back feels better, now that I’m not always sitting with a wallet under one butt cheek.
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When I was 12 I went to Rome with my grandmother. We were on a jam-packed public bus and there was a woman wedged between us who was trying to get into my fanny pack with one hand, and my grandmother’s fanny pack* with her other hand, WHILE SOMEHOW ALSO HOLDING A BABY. We managed to wriggle around and swat away her hands long enough to jump off the bus before she could actually get into our fanny packs, but holy cow that woman was determined to steal our wallets and had no qualms about getting caught.
- I was 12 and my grandmother was a grandmother, ergo we were allowed to wear fanny packs (unlike KidsTheseDays with their retro fanny packs and refusals to get off our collective lawn)
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Robbins is awesome enough to have his own tag on boingboing:
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Anybody know the UK law on detaining a pickpocket if you catch 'em in the act?
I mean, I’d rather punch some pickpocket dude in the head while he was distracted by his own handiwork, but I doubt I’d wind up being the winner in a court case.
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My friend and I watched a very coordinated crew of pickpockets on New Years Eve in Amsterdam about 25 years ago. One guy was the ‘celebrating’ drunk guy who approached everyone and gave them hugs while emptying their pockets, another stood just behind him and spoke to the mark, apologizing for his friend’s boisterousness, and a few others were there to disappear with the goods as they got them.
A couple hours later they approached us. I kept my hand in my pocket on my money - he really insisted on shaking that hand. They started to escalate in their ‘disappointment’ at my lack of festive spirit until I told them I had seen them working earlier, and that I was about to call the policeman across the street.
40 something me would of course call the policeman the first time I saw them, but 21ish me was too wide eyed by the world to do such a thing.
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By coincidence, the pickpockets were trying to steal enough cash for a beach holiday in Thailand.
