Filming the Hand That's Stealing His Wallet

[R. A. Hettinga]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/business/09flier.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=>

The New York Times

March 9, 2004
FREQUENT FLIER

Filming the Hand That's Stealing His Wallet
With FRANCINE PARNES

f you want my title, it's professor of pickpocketry. My wife, Bambi
Vincent, and I spend seven months each year traveling the world to film
pickpockets and other street thieves who prey on unsuspecting tourists. As
a security consultant to business travelers, law enforcement and
corporations, I live to expose the latest tricks of scoundrels.

 After we observe a thief in action, we usually try to lure him into
conversation and pick his brain the way he picks the pockets of his
victims. Most thieves love to brag, though on other occasions we've had
rocks thrown at us and knives pulled on us, and we've been hit and spat
upon.

I keep my money tucked inside my trousers, in a thin leather pouch that
hangs from my belt. I also have a wallet stuffed only with newspaper, which
I use as bait. It has been stolen from my hip pocket more than 100 times.
Sometimes I confront the thieves and it magically appears on the ground.
But other times I steal it back; that's the quickest way to establish
rapport with pickpockets. When I invite them for coffee, I think they are
in awe, and that is why they reveal their secrets and give me their
cellphone numbers. Granted, the phones are usually stolen.

Our cameras are no bigger than a dime, hidden inside items like buttons on
shirt collars. In London, I was tracking some pickpockets for a news
program and had to go to the men's room. The camera was in my eyeglasses,
and when I stood at the urinal, I forgot to turn my head. The editors had
to do some cutting.

I probably have more insight into the subculture of global pickpocketing
than any other person in the world, on either side of the law. But that
doesn't mean that pickpockets can't outsmart me. Last summer in Rome, my
wife and I were packed like sardines in a metro at rush hour near the
crowded Spanish Steps. There were 20 people near the door, and 14 were
probably pickpockets. A woman was working my hip pocket, gently moving out
my wallet. I had a small wireless video camera hidden in a cellphone in my
right hand, high up filming the action. Bambi was to my left, with two guys
trying for her handbag, which she was keeping an eye on. Another team of
three guys was trying to go for a tall American man standing close beside
me. I pretended not to notice anything.

 Unbeknownst to me, they succeeded in removing a small video recorder from
a bag I was holding at knee level while I was watching everyone's faces.
Embarrassing, yes, but I have to acknowledge the finesse of high-end
pickpockets because of the perfection in their combination of stealth and
precise choreography.

I have seen a person steal from someone in a wheelchair. I have seen women
bare their breasts and drop their pants to shock and distract their victims
if they are accused. Nothing has come close what I documented in Calcutta
more than 40 years. Pickpockets with leprosy approached British expatriates
coming out of church and reached out to them with ravaged hands missing
fingers. The victim's reaction of shock and revulsion provided the
distraction needed for the pickpocket's partner to extract his wallet. It
was the most eye-opening incident in pickpocketing I have ever witnessed.

As told to Francine Parnes.


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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