Pickpockets: How to Become a Harder Target

Do you know this saying? “You don’t have to outrun the bear, only the person next to you.” It’s a metaphor for competitive situations when someone outsmarts their rivals rather than directly beating the biggest challenge. Well, the same principal can be applied to pickpocketing.

Let me explain, ‘pickpockets’ are people who steal from the pockets or bags of others in public places with the intention of keeping or selling the items that belong to someone else. Pickpockets are the bears looking for prey, and you unfortunately will be prey. That’s not a personal attack on your character or intelligence because everyone is susceptible to pickpockets. How is this possible? It’s a matter of misdirection, just like a magic trick.

Yet even if you know how the magic trick is done, you won’t be able to stop pickpocketing from happening. The best you can do is reduce the chances of it happening to you – you got to outrun the person next to you. This post will help you become a harder target than others around you and give guidance for what to do when sadly you are the target.

Tourists Targeted Globally

Aboard a Transatlantic cruise on the Princess Sun, I attended an enrichment titled “World of Pickpockets” given by renown Irish magician Davey McAuley. As a true master of deception and misdirection, there could be no better person to demonstrate the tricks commonly used by con artists. McAuley’s aim was not to teach his audience how to pickpocket, (though I know how to lift a phone out of a back pocket now) the aim was to better understand how easy deception is and ways to mitigate the chances of it happening to you.

Davey McAuley’s lecture was not confined solely to the art of picking phones and wallets out of pockets, he also covered phone-scams, AI fakes, RFID skimming, etc. all while using his magician’s sleight of hand to show how these tricks are done. If you are interest in learning more, his book Don’t Be Fooled can be found here through an affiliate link on Amazon.

McAuley stressed that falling for a scam or being tricked is not a reflection of character nor intellect. Everyone is susceptible to sleight of hand and misdirection. Even he - professional magician and presenter on pickpocketing - has been a victim (ironically, it occurred the day before he was to present this lecture for the first time). The success of someone stealing has everything to do with opportunity and odds of being seen. (I purposely wrote odds of being ‘seen’ instead of ‘getting caught,’ because you may see the crime happen and that person will be long gone before they get caught.)

As a person who has firsthand experience, McAuley can empathize with the level of anger and shame one may feel when you are a victim of a pickpocket or scammer. And though it’s natural to feel overwhelmed or panicked when you first discover you’ve been robbed, how you react can impact the overall effect of this loss.

What to Do When Your Bag is Stolen

I’m going to tell you what McAuley advised his audience to do vs what I actually did when it happened to me. Long ago, when Waymo was a thing of science fiction and Ubers were confined to the streets of San Francisco, I was on a terrible first date in Santa Monica when my purse was stolen.

According to Davey McAuley, the best thing to do when your purse or wallet is stolen is to cancel your credit cards immediately. Your instinct might be to call the police, but you can call them later. You want to lessen the financial damage by switching off your cards so they cannot be used.

What did I do? I called the police. Well, not exactly, I had my date drive me to the Santa Monica Police Station so I could make a report. I was sobbing the whole way there, partially because I felt so stupid for leaving my purse unattended, and partially because I felt trapped on this terrible date. My mind was spiraling - what would happen if I couldn’t move my car? Would it get towed for overnight parking? Or even worse – would I need my date to give me a ride home? How was I going to get there without my date knowing where I lived? By the time I arrived at the police station, I had given the thief enough time to use my card at the liquor store closest to the scene of the crime.

Next, McAuley advised that you walk in the direction the assailant fled and check every trashcan along the way. It might sound callous, but pickpockets want your cash, not your stuff. You may be freaking out because a sentimental or item of extreme importance was in that bag - in my case both, a vintage 1940’s handbag and my car keys; but typically, thieves don’t want those things (car theft is high risk and vintage bags are only in demand if they are designer). Once the wallet has been looted of cash and cards, the bag will often be tossed in the trash.

Sure enough, as I was giving my tearful testimony to the police, the officer’s walkie talkie squawked, and a voice reported a purse had been found atop a trashcan near the crime scene. I waited anxiously in the hopes that it was in fact my purse and not some other unfortunate person’s bag, and that my keys would somehow still be in that bag so I could be rid of this terrible date. Thankfully it was my vintage purse; the wallet was empty of cash and cards, but most importantly my car keys were there so I could escape!

I hope you never experience anything like this, but odds are you will be a victim of a scammer or pickpocket at some point whether you are a world traveler or a homebody. So how do we make sure our bags are not taken in the first place? Well, McAuley says you must be a riskier target than the person next to you. 

Deterrents for Handbags

·      Use a crossbody strap instead of putting it over the shoulder – this makes it harder to grab and run

·      Keep your bag closed with the zipper towards your back, not the front – it’s harder for a pickpocket to unzip a bag going towards the target than away. Annoyingly, it is inconvenient for you to open your bag this way too, but one must make sacrifices for safety

·      If you have a jacket, put it over top of your bag – even harder to unzip a bag towards the target unnoticed when the zipper isn’t visible

·      Don’t place your bag on the ground, or if you do, loop a strap under a table leg or chair – make your bag harder to walk off with than someone else’s bag

Deterrents for Cell Phones

·      Don’t set your cell phone on the table where one quick open menu or map in the face can obstruct your view while your phone is swiped off the table

·      Get an anti-theft phone tether – It’s hard to swipe if it's attached to you. I use this one from amazon I found it useful when I am hiking, on a boat, or in the snow; basically anywhere I'd be screwed if I dropped my phone.  Click the affiliate link to get yours

·      Your front pants pockets are wider inside and narrower at the opening; you can ‘lock your phone in’ by turning it horizontally in your pocket. Given the choice, a thief would lift a phone poking out of a target’s pocket rather than risk reaching into the target’s pocket, turning the phone vertically, then lifting it out undetected

·      Speaking of pockets, ‘Beware of Pickpockets’ signs are helpful in showing would-be thieves where your most valuable items are located. How you ask? Often, when a person reads this sign, they pat their pocket to reassure themselves their wallet or phone is still where they normally keep it. Don’t give a pickpocket hints to where the good stuff is hidden!

By creating these extra steps, you decrease your appeal to pickpockets. With all these deterrents in place, does that mean you will never have your bag or phone stolen? No. It means you are a risky target rather than an easy target. So, when the bear is chasing you, you will be ahead of the pack and least likely to be victim of an attack.