It's just another example of if you run into a pro, you're done. Same goes for house burglary, car theft, anything. The man in question is a conjuror, the difference is that he uses the skills to steal things. You can say "don't let anyone get within arm's length" but in the street you won't notice until it's too late . You'll be walking around minding your own business, then bump, oh sorry mate, you all right? He pats your arm, that's you done. Then he's gone.
if someone is very good, thinking that you can avoid it is like thinking that you can watch a conjuror and know how he did it, or that you can step into a ring with a boxer or karate expert and stay out of his way. You can't. By the time you think that he's about to throw a punch, he's kicked you in the head and you are lying on the floor.
Absolutely true. Think I told the story before but travelling on the French underground, my wife, youngest daughter and I got targeted by a team of at least 5 North African looking chaps. Miraculously, lost nothing, as all our lot have been well schooled in not carrying anything travelling you don't want to lose, and all wallets and purses were deep in zipped handbags or buried in a front jeans pocket in my case.
Two of the guys slipped in front of us as we were heading up the escalator, two behind. The ones at the top pretended to stumble, blocking the exit to the escalator, and as we stumbled forward onto0 them, the two behind pressed in and 'fell forward' on to the top of us. By pure luck, I had seen the same stunt pulled in a documentary on Italian pickpockets not one before, so twigged immediately what had happened - but couldn't do anything to stop it. Just about felt a finger go into my back pocket to check for anything there but could do nothing about it. But presumed there were hands everywhere in the fracas.
As soon as the melee cleared the two teams of two split in opposite directions. I pulled the girls aside and explained what had happened, and asked them to check their bags - the zips had been open, but with their passports and wallets being zipped into secondary compartments, somehow we got away with no loss.
The train we got on was delayed a few minutes, and as we were waiting on it - the 4 lads reappeared with a 5th member - who I suspect had probably been stationed at the top of the escalator as a lookout in case there were cops or transport company staff about.
'Twas a real pro job. Even if we had got stuff taken - you wouldn't have known which of the 4 to go for, and the three of us weren't likely to get very far trying to accost four lean and reasonably fit looking males. Add that to the fact the 5th guy was kicking around, and had probably vetted the place to make sure there were no other 'officials' of any kind we could call to for help - and there was no way we could have got anything back even if we knew they'd taken it.
Moral of the story - I'm not sure, other than be careful what you take with you travelling, and don't take what you're afraid to lose perhaps.
ajwsl.co.uk
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