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DICK WOODBURYPickpockets, who favor crowded subway stations in big cities such as London. Experts say a few precautions can prevent most thefts.
LONDON - "The thing to know about pickpockets," Capt. Kevin Shanahan of the British Transport Police was saying, "is that they are like fishermen. They like to hang out where they will find the fish."
In most big cities such as London, that means they hang out in crowded coaches and station platforms on the subway system (in London, it's the Underground, or Tube) and commuter train stations, where the sardinelike crush of humanity in rush hour makes for easy pickings.
I had more than idle curiosity for seeking out Shanahan, chief of London's pickpocket squad. Twice recently, on different continents, I had been the target of pickpockets in subway stations. Only my wife's screams on a Paris escalator last year thwarted the second thief.
Coincidentally, on the eve of my appointment with the captain, my wife, Irene, and I had chased off yet another crook, this one as he tried for my tote bag while we sipped afternoon tea in a cafe.
I asked Shanahan if U.S. tourists set themselves up for attack. "Well, you do tend to carry more cash around with you than any other travelers except the Japanese," he replied.
He said women are better quarry because their purses usually are easier to get at than men's wallets. But the soaring number of cell phone thefts suggests that men are getting hit much more.
Shanahan said a traveler's best foil against pickpockets is his alertness. "Develop a constant awareness of your own space and your surroundings, so that if an odd thing happens, like someone trying to stand too close on the Tube, you will right away take notice," he said.
That's a sound idea, but caution can be difficult to practice when you are are caught up in tourism euphoria and intent on making it through a crowd to get a better view of Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey.
Still, obvious precautions should be taken, such as keeping hand and shoulder bags zipped and tucked under the arm, and wallets and money clips in inside pockets. Authorities say these basic precautions can prevent more than 90 percent of pickpocket thefts.
To further discourage criminals, make sure the straps on purses are short, and carry larger bags in front of you with the flaps against your body.
If you must travel with valuable jewelry, leave it in the hotel safe.
Lately, some pickpockets have specialized in cash-machine theft. Called shoulder-surfers, these thieves peek over the shoulder of customers at ATMs, memorizing the PIN numbers punched in, then later picking the customers' wallets to get to the bank cards.
It is the latest reason for travelers to maintain lists - not kept in a wallet - of bank and credit card account numbers, so the accounts can be canceled if the cards are stolen.
In Caracas, Venezuela, in 2001, I failed to heed the common-sense advice and fell victim to a ploy called "hook and lift."
As I was about to alight from an escalator at a subway stop, the man just ahead of me feigned dropping something and abruptly halted to pick it up. That forced me to plow into him, and as I did, thief No. 2, directly behind me, "accidentally" bumped me and lifted a roll of bolivares from the side pocket of my slacks.
I discovered the theft seconds later, but by then, the two rascals had disappeared in the crowd, and I could only leave the station fuming at myself for not secreting my cash.
A few months later in Paris, I fell victim again to the escalator ploy, and once more I had myself to blame for foolishly believing my billfold would be secure deep in the hip pocket of my snug-fitting jeans.
As my wife and I left the Pere Lachaise subway station, I found myself sandwiched between two wiry strangers. But this time I caught on, and Irene's piercing cry quickly attracted others. The commotion also frightened the young thief into dropping my wallet, with the cash in place, as he hightailed it out of the station.
It was small solace that I had been hit by pickpocketing's best, those slicksters who can empty your pockets unnoticed using such distractions as spilling a drink and then apologizing profusely while an accomplice grabs your valuables.
Other crooks work with decoy handbags: A favorite locale is women's shoe stores, where a thief may stroll past a victim who is preoccupied trying on shoes. The thief drops the lookalike bag, bulked out with paper, next to the victim's chair and deftly scoops up hers.
More unnerving are crude snatch-and-grab gangs that are adding an often violent edge to pickpocketing. Youths surround a target on a crowded train, slash the straps of her bag or slit it open on the spot to grab money and cards, and flee.
Police say significant numbers of today's thieves are recent arrivals from eastern Europe, some of them Faginlike groups that enlist children as young as 10, as a distraction or even to run with the loot.
Shanahan said police are aggressively combating pickpocketers with undercover teams, aided by station video monitors and other intelligence. Three-officer units keep watch at Tube stations regularly used by tourists, such as Victoria, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. Sometimes these units race to break up thefts before they happen, even apprehending known pickpockets only on suspicion.
In the past three years, Shanahan said, London police have cut reported offenses by 25 percent. They clear fewer than one in 10 pickpocket reports through arrest and conviction, but detectives say the number would be higher with greater public effort. "Public awareness would help considerably and raise the profile of the problem," he said.
Vowing to heed that advice as I left his office, I hoped Shanahan did not notice as I furtively moved my wallet out of my back pocket and into a pouch around my neck.
- Dick Woodbury is a freelance writer living in Denver.