After readingthis thread about European pickpockets, thieves and scammers, I got to wondering if this kind of thing actually happens in the US and elsewhere, or if it’s a peculiarly European brand of criminality.
I mean, I’m 43, and I have yet to encounter a pickpocket or casual thief in the US (or for that matter, Europe), and nor do I know anyone else who has encountered them in the US, although several have run into them in Europe.
Pickpocketing does seem to be more of a continental artform, but it does happen in the US. A common target is crowded areas like sporting events or mass transit, as opposed to European pickpockets who seem to prefer to work in tourist-heavy public areas.
There used to be band of miscreants in the NYC subway who would target people who fell asleep on late-night trains. They would use a boxcutter to delicately slice open the victim’s pocket and take their stuff.
I did once have the misfortune to run across a casual thief. It was near the height of the national crime rate in the early '90s. I was waiting to cross the street, and a guy not much older than I walked by, happened to notice a pencil in my shirt pocket, and smoothly snatched it.
I was a young teenager, and I had never had anything remotely similar happen to me or anybody I knew, so it was somewhat traumatic at the time. Plus I really liked that pencil.
Today, if somebody tried something that, I’m reasonably certain that I would react fast enough to make them regret it.
I had a guy try to sell me a watch in New York (“I found this watch in a taxi, do you want to buy it?”).
And I was with a friend in Chicago and some guy tried to clean my friend’s sneakers and then badgered him for money. That’s more like aggressive panhandling then a scam, I suppose.
I don’t know about pickpockets, but scammers run wild.
Last summer someone called my grandmas house late at night and said they had my brother in jail, and that he needed bail money, or they were going to send him to Virginia, because the warrant they arrested him for was from out of state. She somehow found a western union that night and sent these people $2200.
There are always stories on the news about people snatching cell phones on the subway or bus, about purse snatchers, and home invasions.
I know several people who’ve been mugged, although I have (thankfully) only been the victim of non-violent theft. As a student I once absentmindedly left my bag in the library bathroom and by the time I realized what had happened it was already gone. The police did later catch the guy – they didn’t give me the details, but I think he was captured on security camera at the convenience store near the library where he used my credit card – and found property in his car and apartment that had been reported stolen by other students. He was eventually convicted on several charges related to these thefts.
It turns out the thief had previously done time for armed robbery, so I guess I’m lucky I didn’t encounter him earlier in his criminal career.
I’ve seen people playing Three-card Monte on the street in San Francisco. (Really? I can’t believe there are people who still don’t know that this is a scam.)
Then there’s the blessing scams that have recently had major success in Chinatowns in San Francisco and elsewhere.
I’ve also had my wallet stolen while I was on a bus.
San Francisco = major tourist town = great for pickpockets and scammers
I have ran into some scammers running a 3 card Monte scam in truck stops along Interstate 75. The first truck stop was just north of Dayton, OH, the second was north of Lexington, KY, with over a year between the encounters. Same 3 guys running it, they didn’t recognize me from the first time. Apparently they were good enough at it to keep going, but I couldn’t believe how blatant they were about the set up. I literally laughed out loud at them and walked off.
All of this happens all the time in Chicago.
No, European pickpockets also work in sporting events or mass transit, but the tourist information is in tourist heavy public areas and the tourists are more likely to be pickpocketed in tourist heavy public areas.
The places where I most often see information on pickpocketing in Barcelona? Sagrada Familia, Catalunya and Plaça Espanya metro stations. Crowded subways, so a perfect spot for thieves, and full of tourists so those ads get a lot more “hits on target” than if they were in say Vall d’Hebron metro station.
When in New Orleans, I always play along a bit with the street hustlers (betcha I can tell you where you got your shoes). I tell them if they forget the scam for a bit we’ll buy them a few drinks, and we do. They always seem to have some interesting stories to tell.
It still happens in the US in places where there are lots of people and activity, such as airports, subways, beaches, etc. I know a person who had her purse stolen at an airport. She was making conversation with the man beside her, looked at her phone for a second, and when she looked up both he and the purse were gone.
In the US, everyone drives a car everywhere, so it is a lot easier to just wait until they leave the parking lot and them break into (or steal) their car.
I’ve caught several really bad pickpockets at the major SEPTA stations in Philadelphia. They target backpacks, open any back or side pockets they can get to unnoticed, and take whatever they can reach. Picking an actual pocket does take some skill. Opening a backpack zipper doesn’t.
I never kept anything in the small backpack pockets. So, I never lost anything. I do see people with open backpack zippers all the time on SEPTA. I think most are recent victims.
I was pickpocketed in New Orleans a couple of years ago. I was carrying a purse and was worried about being pickpocketed so I didn’t have my wallet or cellphone in my purse. The guy wasn’t very good and when I felt something jostle my purse, I turned just in time to see him with his hand in my purse. He slipped away very quickly and empty handed.
A friend of mine was suckered by the “This is a dangerous part of town; let’s put our money in a safe place” scam. The old envelope swap.
My friend was astonished at how much real effort the scammer went through – twenty minutes of work – to get away with about $40.
(Yeah, sure, $120 an hour… But how much of the guy’s working day is actually profitable? I doubt very much he’s suckering guys, non-stop, all the working-day long.)
I’m ignorant . What’s the shoes scam?
"I’ll betcha I can tell you where you got your shoes.”
“OK, you’re ON - $10 says you can’t”
“You got them right here on Bourbon Street.”
At his point, if you don’t pay up, some big guys come out of the shadows and give you some encouragement…
Somebody tried to scam me on the BART train in San Francisco. It was fairly well done. They got in line ahead of me for a automated ticket-purchasing kiosk, and then staged an argument about how much money to put on their card. Finally one of them turned to me and said, “You know what, why don’t you use the kiosk while we figure this out?” The scam was they’d left the kiosk in a state where any money I tried to put in would be automatically applied to their card. Fortunately I’d used them before, so when I got to the final screen and it didn’t offer me the opportunity to have a paper ticket printed, I realized that something was wrong and canceled the transaction. It actually took me a minute to realize that it was a deliberate scam and not an accident.
That’s my experience, except no big guys. It’s a gotcha. Standing there, you do got your shoes on Bourbon Street. The mark is supposed to feel stoopid and pay up.
The first time I was gotcha’d I really laughed out loud and happily gave the guy some money. If you buy one of them a few drinks and a po boy you get your money’s worth back in entertainment, IME.