At about 39/40 seconds in someone touched his shoulder. At that point I would be aware of it and I would move them off to a safe distance. A simple "MOVE BACK" with an outstretched arm would do it.
Adam,
Speaking from personal experience, your statement is more easily said than done.
Believe me, after having had ones wallet lifted from my inside coat pocket in the mid-seventies by some thieving scrotes using the distraction method, no matter how alert you are, you don't feel a thing - and I only discovered that the wallet was gone about an hour later when I went to pay for a pint, and meat and potato pie in a pub in Hanley (when I was working on a new-build there for a few months).
The b*****ds taught me a very expensive lesson, as cash and not plastic was the order of the day then - and I didn't even get my bloody pie or pint!
Cash
I don't think it's that easy. When one of my sons was around 18 an attractive girl approached close to him in a bar (in Barcelona), smiled sweetly, gently squeezed his balls, and walked off. Later he discovered that someone had taken passport, money, driving licence, etc. and he didn't have a clue who/how/when.
Nothing new - when a girl has a lad by the balls, his wallet will follow.
It was hard to se where they took the wallet from, and perhaps it was something else but it looked to me like it came out of the back pocket.
If you're gonna be that stupid you deserve to lose it.
tim
I got dipped in Madrid, but it wasn't a distraction. It was a quick in and out with no attempt to hide what they were doing, hoping to just run away quickly enough
AIH I reacted fast enough for them to not have fully removed my wallet, so they ran away with nothing
tim
Happened to me on a crowded bus in Naples. I had my hand in the pocket with my wallet. So when the girl next to me put her hand in the pocket. I grabbed it and didn't let go until we got off the bus (wallet intact). Interestingly no attempt to complain on her part.
Jonathan
On an escalator in the Metro in Paris I saw the man behind throw something = (a Bic lighter) on to the step in front of me and then make a lunge for it= . Having see him throw it and wondering what the f**k he was at I then felt= the tug on my back pocket. Turning round to confront the second bastard I = just started screaming blue murder. Didn't faze them they just strolled awa= y leaving me with my wallet and utterly confused wife who didn't know what = was going on.
What saved me was the fact that the trousers were a little tight and the wa= llet was very packed with all my cash. (I had brought travellers cheques bu= t the French banks had just decided to start charging for changing them whi= ch was not the way it was supposed to be. Having just discovered this and f= earing more charges every time I changed some I just changed the lot. Boy w= as I lucky.
on the Metro in Barcelona, a friend standing next to me brought the edge of his hand down very hard on a wandering arm.
At school in the 1960s, aged 15/16, one of the lads went to the front of the room to put something in the wastepaper bin. On his way back to his desk he crept up behind the teacher, who standing, talking to us, and stole the pen out of his front breast pocket. We sat there mesmerised, watching it happen but the teacher had no idea. (With hindsight, I reckon the same lad picked my pocket when I was collecting dinner money. I never could work out why it never balanced.)
Don't tell me, he's now the CEO of a major public company
A favourite Underground trick is for them to stand opposite one of the signs warning that pickpockets are operating in the area. The almost automatic reaction of someone reading the sign is to check they've still got their wallet/phone/whatever thus showing the pickpockets exactly where to focus their attention.
I think that's obvious.
Due to his brains being too far down his trousers.
/when.
I think that's obvious.
MBQ
LOL.
We had/have Eastern blockdistraction operators at a large,weekly car boot sale - must be hard up. They approach from left and right at the same time, one asking if you have the time and the other saying something else. Because they're at your shoulders it's difficult to respond to either. I only found out what they were about some half hour on. I stepped back one pace, told one I didn't wear a watch and, as I looked at the other they both shrugged and walked away. Later I spotted the dip actually happening and dragged in a security chap who took off after them (he didn't catch them or find the wallet) He told me as we were leaving that it's a "popular" method in the area.
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