Prague is accurate - esp. on the #22 and #9 trams. I’ve lived in Prague off and on for 9 years and see this all the time.
Not as well networked as in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia where a friend whose car was stolen went to the police and was given the phone number of the people who stole his car and said he’d have to contact them to sort it out.
I lived there in 2002/03 - crazy place.
Seems to me that the solution is to buy a very cheap wallet Then buy a pack of straight razors in the hardware store. Tape a razor blade into the wallet so the fuckwad who slips his/her fingers into your pocket looking to rob you comes away with a badly cut hand.
Fair is fair. You’re gonna mess with me? I’m gonna mess with you.
I kinda wonder what the various Euro legislations have to say about that strategy. Assault charges might be on the menu, and the real wallet ends up emptied anyway.
I can envision myself slicing up my own ass that way.
I seriously doubt that, unless their laws are far more radically different from ours than I realize. While I find it remotely plausible that booby trap laws could apply to your own body (to protect rescue workers), I’m pretty sure “I’m a cutter” or “I’m into razor blades for fashion purposes” would be an effective defense.
Now that this thread has been revived, I remember that I was almost nearly robbed in Rome. I was hanging out with some guy who was in the US Army whose job was to play tennis. I was young and on the $15 a day travel budget (1980). We were sleeping on a ledge outside the Roma Termini train station. Some time during the night I felt someone tugging at my backpack and managed to scare them off. My poor buddy was not so light a sleeper and got his tennis racket stolen.
Whoops, I was robbed in Saigon and not Hanoi. That said, I’m sure Saigon is in the top 50.
The targets are normally tourists. I’ve visited several of these cities and lost a wallet once. I also lived in one for years and had no attempts. Once when I had visitors, they were pick-pocketed almost immediately.