The following advice was given to travelers by an insurance company:
“Crafty criminals are always coming up with new ways to distract victims, such as starting an argument, or faking a fainting spell. While this happens, a second criminal is lifting the loot from tourists' purses, pockets and backpacks. In some cases, innocent-looking children will show cute drawings; while the victim is politely examining the art work, the little hands are reaching into pockets.”
--http://www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,1674,P1385,00.html

My question is, which of these tactics is supposed to be new? The I-have-drawings-to-show-you trick has long been a favorite in the Third World, and the other tricks mentioned above were already ancient in 1955 when David Maurer wrote “The Whiz Mob,” a scholarly treatise on the terminology used by pickpockets. Met Life’s advice goes on to say:

“Pickpockets work in crowded areas, pushing, wedging or bumping into people as another means of distraction. Play it safe and carry your money in hidden moneybelts or pouches around your neck. Because skillful pickpockets can pick just about any pocket, keep only small amounts of cash in a handbag or wallet. Carry your wallet in your front pocket; women should carry their purses with the strap across the chest, or hold the bag under one arm. It should not be dangling over the shoulder.”

This advice is necessary but not sufficient. Pickpockets do work in crowded areas, but potential victims are not necessarily safe just because they have moved away from the crowd. The principle advantage to the pickpocket of there being a crowd nearby is that he or she can escape into it—not that the pickpocket needs a crowd to cover his work. Among themselves, pickpockets have different skill levels, and while some only specialize in picking one type of pocket, such as the back or side pocket of the pants or the inside breast pocket of the coat (an Old World-style), others are quite versatile and may be able to pick any kind of pocket—even a purse around your neck. Although it would take a high degree of skill, even picking a moneybelt is possible. There are, as well, those black-sheep cousins of the pickpocket who use a sharp blade to slice open backpacks or cut moneybelts or purse straps. (Indeed, they used to be called “cut-purses.”) MetLife has actually lumped together different types of criminals with entirely different skills; true pickpockets are not the same as purse-snatchers.

Palpable “pushing, wedging or bumping” are unreliable indicators of whether pickpockets are taking your wallet. Twenty-five years ago, I was the victim of a pickpocket (or pickpockets?) in a Toronto hotel lobby, and I was unaware of being bumped or jostled in any way. This, according to Maurer, is the mark of true professionals in the pickpocket world—the victim never knows what happened until he reaches for his wallet and finds it missing. (I use “he” deliberately: among the many traditional distinctions between purse-snatchers and pickpockets is that old-school pickpockets-or “class cannons”-didn’t steal from women. One of the many reasons for this observance was that male pickpockets did not want to be arrested for frottage!) True to traditional methods as described by Maurer, my pickpockets dumped my wallet after taking only my money. Toronto’s Metropolitan Police found and returned my wallet in the mail within a few days. This courtesy on the part of my pickpockets was not, well, a courtesy. Rather, traditional pickpockets only stole untraceable cash because they were afraid to take credit cards or commit identity fraud; the wisest advice among thieves, as in any walk of life, is to do only what you know how to do.

Nowadays, you might not be able to count on such specialization, however, because some pickpockets are probably eclectic enough to borrow tricks from con artists, purse-snatchers, identity thieves and other criminals. Even in the 1950s, Maurer detected a trend among some criminals toward combining picking pockets with other kinds of theft and swindles. His interviewees decried this lack of professional integrity; yet, just a couple of years ago, a 67-year-old woman in Florida named Ernestine Williams was convicted of running an interstate ring that combined picking pockets, identity theft and sale of stolen goods. (Williams’ criminal record went back to the 1960s and included “many shoplifting and drug-related charges,” according to an ABCNews.com report.)

The following comes from Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department and is considerably sounder advice:
“Common Misconceptions about Pickpockets”
(http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1237,q,547816,mpdcNav_GID,1551.asp)

· An experienced pickpocket is not necessarily the sleazy person lurking in dark doorways we expect to see. He (or she!) appears as an average person in both appearance and manner. Because of their chosen "line of work," they spend a great deal of time studying how to blend into a crowd, therefore eliminating the possibility of detection before they can get away.

· Pickpockets don’t have a regular schedule; they operate just as well at night as they do during the day. They operate in crowds just as easily as "accidentally" bumping into an unsuspecting victim alone on a sidewalk. In fact, about the only "known" fact about pickpockets is that they generally focus on the public during times when they may be carrying more money than usual, such as during the holidays, at store sales, at fairs or carnivals, at casinos, or near bank entrances, etc.

· Many times, pickpockets work alone; however, there are also teams of two or three, which sometimes will involve a female accomplice. The first team member removes the valuables from the unsuspecting victim’s pockets. He then passes them on to the next member who disappears quickly from the area. When a female member is used in this “team effort,” her role is generally to engage the victim in conversation to distract his or her attention.

· Contrary to what most of us believe, experienced pickpockets do not put their hands all the way into your pocket to steal your belongings. The expert pickpocket reaches into the top of the pocket, takes up a pleat in the lining, and continually folds the lining up until the bottom of the pocket (holding your valuables) reaches the top of the pocket. This entire act only takes a second or two.