Reminds me of this Moth Radio Hour episode
http://www.themoth.org/radio_205
You can listen to the piece on the prx site after signing up for an account
http://www.prx.org/pieces/47406-moth-radio-hour-205
The lost art of pickpockets
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#22Pickpockets always make me think of the Roald Dahl story, The Hitch-Hiker.
Link to story: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:un_MdjwjvxkJ:w...
The two-column view may be a bit of a downer, but then one could always download the Word document...
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#23We're supposed to be sad about this? I mean, sure, if it were being replaced with more violent thievery that would be bad, but crime has been dipping across the board.
It's a romantic post, hence the references to all the fictional depictions of pickpockets. It's very much of a piece with the heroes of caper films - people don't normally root for crooks, but the idea of a nonviolent, clever crook who puts a lot of work into perfecting what he does appeals to people.
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#24Has anyone read The Great Train Robbery by Crichton? It talks about all sorts of stuff like this, except in Victorian era England. Great book. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Train-Robbery-Michael-Crichton/d...
Yes, it reads like a Victorian Era Oceans 11. One of the biggest things I remember about it was that they didn't even consider doing anything but stealing the keys to the safe. It wasn't "pickable" given their technology level, explosives weren't powerful enough to open it and it was massive enough to make brute force measures infeasible.
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#25Back in '08 or so I was at Disneyland. A woman bumped in to me after getting off the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Then she bumped into me again at the turnstyle going out where people back up a bit. I remember thinking she was rude. When I got outside, a person mentioned my wallet was about to fall out of my back pocket. Never having my wallet fall out like that, before or since, I've always wondered if the rude la…
It sounds like she grabbed you wallet, took (or planted) whatever, and then put it back...
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
$400 seems right. Jack someone's wallet and then walk into the nearest big box store to use their credit cards. I've had my credit card # stolen 3 or 4 times and $400 is about the average amount of fraud that happened each time. It's usually like a tank of gas and a trip to Best Buy to purchase something like a video game console. One time they bought a plane ticket online for $350.
One time they bought a plane ticket online for $350. I assume this one get caught?
Don't assume anything.
I had someone steal my card info and use it to by a bed and mattress, which was delivered to their house.
Sears (ahem) wouldn't tell me who bought it, or where it was delivered, because I wasn't the purchaser, but they were happy to charge me for it. I turned it over to the police, but they said they weren't going to deal with it as it was 'only' ~$1200. This was in 2002 IIRC.
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#27We're supposed to be sad about this? I mean, sure, if it were being replaced with more violent thievery that would be bad, but crime has been dipping across the board.
Amusing - "dipping" is slang for pick-pocketing ...
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#28Coincidentally, John Dvorak was just pick pocketed in Madrid: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380787,00.asp
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#29Those who have no stomach for violence can eke out a living snatching cell phones on the subway, which are much easier to convert to cash than stolen credit cards... At first I thought this was a fake semantic distinction, but now I see: Snatching is not the same as pickpocketing, because the mark helpfully takes out the most valuable item they own and holds it in prime stealing position for you, instead of concealin…
A friend of mine had his brand new iPhone 4 snatched on the subway here a few weeks back. It's a real eye opener. You just hold it out there. If you aren't ready for someone to take it, it's trivial to grab it out of your hands and jump out of the doors while they close.
Re: The lost art of pickpockets
#30Luckily there's no shortage of other creative thefts in much of Europe.
Here's a story how my girlfriend and travel partner got covered in sludge as part of an elaborate diversion to steal her backpack with over $2,000 worth of stuff.
http://shazow.posterous.com/find-yourself-covered-in-slime-y...
Think this is worth posting to HN as a submission?