I live in Paris and have seen this situation in three different parts of the city with three different Chinese girls:
A Chinese girl who cannot speak any French or English (apparently) thrusts a pair of binoculars at passers-by presumably trying to sell them. The first time I couldn’t figure out what she wanted since what she was saying made no sense at all to me. The second time, I was a little suspicious and kind of hung around to see what happened (nothing did). The third time, I began to see the trend! But why binoculars? Mabye they just got a cut-rate on them or they were stolen and they were trying to sell them to pay for (God knows) boarding or their passage to France. I don’t presume to know.
But, has anybody else seen this one in other big cities? I guess a camera wouldn’t work because people would think she wanted a photo of herself…especially given the language problem?
I didn’t see any buyers but saw a few people stop and try to figure out what the deal was.
I’m pretty sure the girls were Chinese. I’m no expert and Asia is a big place, but FWIW I’ve had a Chinese girlfriend for a few years now and they seemed just as unreasonable and irrational as her! That last part is, of course, a joke (just in case she reads that!:eek: ).
This is just speculation but trying out a pair of binoculars sounds like an excellent opportunity to get your pocket picked – hands up, eyes focused elsewhere, concentrating on the image. Think I’ll pass if I ever run into this.
Oh sure! Some poor Chinese girl is just trying to make a living by selling you some possibly stolen binoculars of quesionable quality on a streetcorner, and now you’re accusing her of pickpocketing! Boooo! Hissss! - MC
Just some days ago there was a segment on TV about how tourists get ripped off in Europe. They sent a couple of reporters looking “touristy” to several European places and a crew with hidden cameras to film the entire thing. It is amazing how quickly the birds of prey started circling and approaching them. They were “sold” stuff on the street (they then change the bag and you get a box with a brick), they had their pockets picked, they had money taken from their wallets while they had them in their hands. Those crooks are good at what they do. Beware.
In Italy, after been taken, they hailed a police car (I guess the police did not know they were being filmed either) and when the police heard the story they just laughed: So what did you expect from someone selling you stuff on the street? ha ha.
Comedian Anthony Clark told a story about a scam in Italy where a woman throws a baby at you, and when you catch it, other kids come running up and empty your pockets. So, he says, “If you’re in Italy and a woman throws you a baby, just swat it to the ground.”
On one of James Randi’s recent webcasts, he mentioned an incident when travelling in a sleeper train car into Italy. He had a strange dream, and when he woke up the next morning, his wallet and other valuables were stolen. It turns out this happened to everyone in the car!
Apparently a gang gets on a car and threatens to kill the porter to get him to cooperate. They pipe ether into each sleeper suite and then perform the robbery. Randi’s odd dream was actually him waking up during the robbery but still being under the influence of the ether!
