Pickpockets sound like something out of Oliver Twist but they are still a big problem, especially in tourist-friendly places.
We think that we can spot them, but the really good pickpockets don’t look like your stereotypical thief and often, they hunt in packs.
And we have a tendency to think that it could never happen to us.
People who get pickpocketed are naive or not paying enough attention to their surroundings. Clearly, if someone stuck a hand in our purse or pocket, we’d notice, right?
Unfortunately, some thieves are really good at what they do.
They’re trained to distract us, to play off our emotional faculties, and to misdirect our attention so that they’ve stolen something without us even noticing.
Thai tourists Nina Spencer and Toi McGurran discovered how quickly it can happen.
The two friends were visiting London and on their way to the Palace Theater, filming a short vlog to show friends back home.
In the video, you can see that there’s a crowd around them as they cross the street, which doesn’t seem unusual for London.
Except that when they got to the other side, Toi checked her bag and realized that her designer wallet and all of its contents were missing.
Luckily, they had the video, though they thought it was a long shot.
I mean, if the wallet was stolen, the thieves wouldn’t have done it in view of a camera, right?
If you thought that, you’d be wrong.
For all their planning, the three (or possibly four) women involved were all clearly visible, starting with a woman over Nina’s left shoulder.
The actual pickpocket is the woman visible between the victims’ heads.
When the act happens, the first woman holds up a large black bag, presumably to block the view from any pedestrians walking behind them all.
The second woman’s hand slips right into Toi’s bag and nabs the wallet.
That’s where the third woman in the orange scarf comes in. She crosses behind the thief, who passes her the wallet.
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The whole group then veers off suddenly, including a fourth woman who had been hovering in the back the whole time.
Toi and Nina reported the theft and provided the video as evidence.
I’ll be holding my purse close from now on thank you very much.
Even the smartest, most spacial aware people can be victims of theft. The only thing you can really do to lower your chances of it happening to you is invest in a closer-to-body purse.
While it’s unlikely that the wallet will be found — or at least, the contents will be gone — the video might help catch the gang.
Even though I knew to watch for it, I still missed the grab the first time I watched the real-time video. It happens that fast.
h/t: Viral Press
