Editing Barcelona (section)

=== Pickpockets ===
As you wait in line at the crowded Amsterdam tourist office continuously blaring over the loudspeaker is this warning in six languages: "Your attention, please. Watch your wallets, there are pickpockets about!" 

That tourist office is tough pickings for any would-be pickpocket, as everyone is continuously fidgeting with pockets or purses, and throwing about a great many suspicious looks. 

I have, however, encountered a number of pickpockets in my travels. While queuing in a train station I observed a pickpocket's hand stealthily slip into a purse. For some reason the snatch couldn't be made, so he slithered into another line and attempted to lift a wallet from a back pocket. (I then made his presence known, but he immediately disappeared into the crowd.) 

I have also chased hands from my pockets four times--twice while disembarking crowded buses (a very vulnerable situation1); while temporarily blinded as I descended into a dark, sleazy club from a bright street; and in a market. A travel mate had her fanny pack unzipped and wallet removed while pressed against a wall of people in a crowded market. Another backpacker in the same country had been pickpocketed three times in two months, also in markets. Said he, "They're good." 

The professional pickpocket in the developed world has a more-or-less standard operating procedure. He chooses a likely target--someone who obviously has money within easy reach, which includes back pockets and purses. If the thief cannot get the money cleanly, he or a partner will create a distraction by bumping the target, violently colliding with the target, or spilling something on the target. The wallet is snatched and within two seconds discreetly handed to a partner who quickly walks away. The money and valuables are removed and the rest dumped within a few more seconds.

Even if you see or feel what is happening, you have no evidence. The scoundrel says someone shoved him into you, you fell into him, or you were trying to rob him. 

Another tactic is to create a disturbance with the target's friend or partner, and then pickpocket the real target while he/she is distracted. 

These pickpockets look for easy marks. As long as you don't dangle your money in a purse, or dangle it in a back pocket, or otherwise dangle it on a thread ten feet behind you, they will choose an easier target, of which there are many. 

In the developing world you are a juicy target because pickpockets know you have ten, a hundred, or a thousand times more money than the average local. You are the target. There is no getting around that. But if you keep most of your money in a hidden money belt against your skin as detailed below, you'll be safe from pickpockets.