Thief explains tricks of the pickpocket trade

[seamusTX]

A 39-year-old black man is in jail in New York, charged with multiple offenses of stealing credit cards. He explained his technique to a New York Times reporter. Granted all of this is the words of an admitted career thief and scam artist, but it hangs together.

He worked with a woman partner. They went to bars in midtown Manhattan that were popular with affluent yuppies. One of them would chat up potential victims while the other committed the theft.

He said he usually stole women's wallets from their purses, which they left hanging on the backs of chairs or on the floor. He sometimes stole men's wallets from their jackets, left hanging on chairs, or "man purses" similarly unattended.

He did not say, but it seems to me bars are good sites for this kind of crime. They are dimly lighted, often crowded, often noisy, and the potential victims may be tipsy or focusing on flirtation, or both.

When he got a wallet, he immediately went to a drug store and bought several hundred dollars worth of gift cards. The gift cards could not be traced either to the stolen credit card or to him. He then used the gift cards for his personal expenses or sold them at a discount.

He also bought electronics, which he similarly sold to street vendors. Then he dumped the stolen wallet, sometimes giving it to an associate who would use the stolen ID for identity theft.

He said bartenders sometimes gave him the hairy eyeball, but he was caught by a police task force specifically looking for thieves like him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/nyreg ... money.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/29/nyreg ... -tape.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BTW, I see women leaving their purses unattended this way all the time (usually in the grocery store—I don't patronize bars).

- Jim

[K.Mooneyham]

I always wear my wallet in my front pocket. I was instructed to do this when I was in AFSOC and I deployed in support of the Bosnia thing back in the 90s. Some of the Albanian immigrants to Italy were noted for pick-pocketing folks, and the habit of keeping the wallet in my front pocket just stayed with me.

[ELB]

Jimmy Carter's Secret Service detail got pickpocketed one time, as did Penn Jillette: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013 ... fact_green" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Given recent escapades of the Secret Service, getting pockets picked seems pretty tame.

[ELB]

Reading on the the OP links and the story on Apollo Robbins, the overall strategy is often similar to a violent street robbery, without the violence. The victim is interviewed to see how close one can get, and then often distracted by one predator while another attacks from the blind side. Solo predators look for victims providing their own distraction (talking to others in the bar, drinking), or provide one, (asking a question, doing a magic trick).