February 7, 2012 • 32 mins
There aren't many criminal pursuits that are as storied as pickpocketing, and some people fondly reminisce over its heyday. Learn why some consider pickpocketing an art form, how to protect yourself from this art and more in this episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. This is Charles W. Chuck
Bryant whiting his whistle. Uh and uh, the stuff you
(00:23):
should know? This is the podcast. Yeah, it's is off
to a terrible start. Good again, that's what consecutive bad starts? Oh,
we haven't hit four yet. Yeah, what bad starts are
just shows? Okay, maybe bad starts. Yeah, shows, we're coming
up on it. You gotta be close to four fifty, right, No,
(00:45):
coming up on four? I think I thought we were
over that. No, not yet. No, we would mention our
four hundred show. My goal is for us to make
it the five hundred and then after that all bets
are off the out. It's exactly right, right, So, uh,
what's your I think I might know what your intro is,
but that would be a wild stab in the dark.
(01:06):
I'd like to hear it because I don't have an intro.
Oh really, yeah, what's my intro? Well? I got one then, Okay,
the origin of the word sidekick? Have you ever heard this.
What does that have to do with pickpockets. I'll tell
you my friend back in the old days in London,
which is uh, you know obviously Oliver Twist made pickpocketing
very famous in London. Well, yeah, his character, Uh, they
(01:31):
had different their own language. It was will find out
his pickpockets have their own language period, all sorts of lingo,
like multiple names for everything. Uh. And back in the day,
they each pocket had its own name. The jerve j
E r V or the hair Vey was the vest
(01:51):
pocket and the kick I'm sorry, the pratt was a
back pocket and the kick was a side pocket. And
the kick was the most cult spot to to pickpocket
because it was on the leg and it was always moving,
and so people soon realized that that was the safest
place to put their stuff was in the sidekick. And
so the sidekick years later becomes a term for, you know,
(02:14):
someone helpful and maybe protective, Tonto like Tonto. So that's sidekick. Huh,
that's that's your first interest. I believe it is. I
would have picked a better one. It's no, that's fantastic.
That one's gonna go down and stuff. You should know
lore as the sidekick, and that was my first, but
(02:34):
I don't know barely appropriate. Do you remember when we
used to argue about that about whether you were or not?
What do we settle on that you're not? Okay? But
I know where to originates from Oliver Twist from the Sidekick. Well,
what's funny is there's a lot of stuff that has
to do with pickpocketing, Chuck, that did originate for from
Oliver Twist. Oh really Yeah, Like you were talking about,
(02:57):
like pickpocketing has it's only and go you said, um,
And it's kind of storied and almost legendary, and if
you dial the clock back a few decades, like it was,
UM kind of looked upon the way that maybe today
people look upon um pirates, you know what I'm saying,
Like they're criminals, but there there's so much art to
(03:22):
what they're doing. Maybe like somebody who could steal a
painting from a museum that you have to at least
grudgingly respect them. Well, and we'll talk to uh, we'll
not talk to we'll talk about some people to study this. Yeah,
I wish someone is here. Is that what this guy
is doing exactly? He's lifting your wallet? Um. In this
article you found from Slate that there were some experts
(03:44):
on you know, pickpocketing, and they they definitely think of
it as an art lost art. Specifically, I want to
mention the guy's named Bob Arnold, whose job it is
to travel the world and pose as a mark as
a tourist and then catch people and figure out what
they're doing interesting to keep abbreast of it. Yeah, so, um, chuck,
(04:04):
let's talk a little bit about the basics of pick pocketing, right,
which I think kind of give us a better view
of why people think that it's an art form. Um.
There's you've got a few different kinds of people involved.
Like there's uh, the low level pickpockets, who are really
just basically somebody who has uh a moral compass that's
(04:28):
off and um, an open bag next to him. Yeah,
the opportunist, Like, Hey, there's a co ed studying econ
one O one on the lawn and she's got her
iPad sticking out of her open backpack right next to her,
right which she has her headphones jacked into it turned
up all the way and is not paying attention because
(04:52):
she's been drinking. Well, if the headphones are on her
attached to the iPad, then the person is grabbing the iPad. Well, sure, oh,
I thought you meant like there was a person next
to her that was open and the iPads in there.
She's not studying with the iPad are only for Netflix,
and that's what I thought she was deserving. She's studying. Right,
(05:14):
Maybe we're talking about a different person, which one I
think we've just compled to the easiest mark there there is, right,
which is the unassuming college students. Right. Or you're at
like a coffee place or something like that, and there's
somebody next to you, and it's the kind of place
where you would expect somebody's going to be next to you,
and you're not really paying attention. You're involved in your
computer and their hands in your bag grabbing your wallet
(05:36):
or whatever. Or your sleep on the beach very common one. Yeah,
that one stinks because you want to be able to
sleep on the beach. You have your bag open next
to you, in your wallet sitting in it at a
coffee house and you're not paying attention to it. You
got what you deserved. If somebody steals, I mean it
stinks that there are people out there stealing in general,
and that you can't just go through life like that,
(05:56):
but we all know full well that you can't go
through life like that, and if you do, then you
have no right to complain. You can't even cancel all
of your credit cards. You have to leave one of
your credit cards open because punishment, Yes, that's punishment to yourself.
Uh well, we also we actually skipped to why people
pickpocket to begin with. It's mainly because it's pretty non
(06:17):
confrontational crime and you're never known or confronted, and you're
you're not like holding a gun, so there's no although
we did find out it's a felony a lot of states,
even just non weapon involved pickpocketing. Yeah, but it wasn't.
That's pretty new, is it. Yeah, for a very long time,
it was like if you picked somebody's pocket, you got
(06:38):
very It was a small sentence. You had to return
the money and apologize pretty much. Yeah, the cop brought
you over by your ear exactly. But um, for the
most part, like you said, it's not confrontational, So the
person who loses his or her wallet to a pickpocket
will probably have no idea who took it, won't know
for a long time. Um, And it's fairly safe if
(07:01):
you're good at it. It's safe crime. Yeah. Plus there's
no weapons involved, which is why the sentences were traditionally
not very big. It's almost victimless except for the victim
you know, Well it depends. I mean, if you're touring
Europe and you have everything including your passport and your
wallet in your back pocket and all of it's taken,
(07:24):
that is, there's a victim in that one. I knew
a victim in all of them. I knew a girl
who had her sunglasses ripped off her face and roam Italy. Okay,
that's not artful. Snatch guys, that's not artful, just a jerk. Um.
There was at the Starbucks by my old place, there
(07:46):
was a rash of kids just running in and stealing um,
people's iPhones right off the table and running out or
out of their hand, or stealing the computer that they
were working on the laptop and running out the door.
And there's a guy who has a coffee place in
um Grant Park that his there was just a robbery
(08:07):
and everybody was robbed um in that manner like people
just ran in and stole and ran out. Um. So
the guy's getting locks for the table so you can
slide your laptop in and lock it in place. Yeah,
that's sad that you have to do that, all right,
So where are we crowded subway? Yes, this is the
(08:29):
slightly higher in the hierarchy of pickpockets. Make it sound
effect here, Well, how about this, chuck. One of the
things I think that Um kind of gets to the
point across when you're describing pickpocketing, sure is saying when
you're talking about a scam, saying the old first, right,
and having maybe like old timey ragtime saloon music playing
(08:52):
in the background while you're describing it. So go ahead
with that. Jerry's like on the fly, um, crowded subway car,
which is called the old sandwich or sandwich for those
of you who are a little more proper. And that's
a lot of times these pickpockets working teams because you're
counting on the benefit of distraction. Yes, so tell him
(09:15):
how the old sandwich works. Well, the sandwich is a
you got a person in front who's called the stall,
and the stall suddenly maybe stopped short, um, and and
the person the target bumps into him, the mark. Yeah,
and then the hook or the pick or the wire Okay,
(09:36):
Um bumps into him it's expected that somebody behind you
would bump into you because it's the jerk's fault in
front of you. So you're paying attention to the jerk
in front of you while the guy behind you you
turn around and apologized to and after you know by
that time, the guy's already stolen your wall. So the
person in front of you ends up stalling it of
you is the stallk who you're like, why did you stop?
(09:58):
And while you're stopped, the guy who bumped in behind
you the hook was stolen you, Walt, I thought why
they turned around and said, boy, I'm sorry for this
jouk in front of me. They might have been stealing it.
I guarantee you. That's a variation on it that's called
the sandwich wrap, the low car wrap, Chuck. There's also
um so the people who who do the sandwich working teams. Um.
(10:21):
The team is actually called a cannon. Yeah. So that's
a group of organized pickpockets. Twist and his buddies exactly,
lead appropriately enough then by a Fagan, which is an
old hook, an old pick, an old master pickpocket who
um is named after, Um the crime boss in Oliver Twist, Right, Yeah,
(10:42):
Um and the fagon teaches younger pickpockets the ropes and
absorbs them into the cannon over time. What was that
movie that they mentioned, Oliver Twist. Well, now there was
another Harry in your Pocket. I think, yeah, that's what
it's called. I haven't seen it, but it's a James
Coburn movie from seventy three. Got believe that I will
be seeing you. Got no h no complaints there. So
(11:04):
a cannon is probably going to be the people who
are really good at what they're doing, because there's an old,
venerable guy leading the whole thing. Then you go down
like a couple of notches. You've got um bag workers
who like go for purses, right, yeah, mole buzzers are
I guess that's probably the English version. Well there, that
(11:27):
takes some skill because you're getting close to somebody, right,
um lush workers not that that hard. On the subway,
A lush worker would just target somebody who was coming
home drunk on the subway and they just, I guess,
open up their vests and take their wallet out and
close their vests, smack the guy in the face with
the wallet and then wait for the subway to arrive
(11:48):
at it stopped not very hard, so they were viewed
um kind of lower level E. But did you read
about the fob workers. Yeah, that was and it's hard
to say respect again because these are criminals, but the
fob worker really puts in his or her time, right,
So like this person just uses nothing but his index
(12:08):
finger and his middle finger boom yeah um, and just
walks through a subway on a on a ride and
just grabs like a couple of quarters, a dollar or
whatever's easy to grab. And apparently this one guy estimated,
um I think it was an old subway dick um.
He estimated that fob workers could get like four hundred
bucks out of a single subway ride. That's crazy. Well
(12:32):
that's probably from like Wall Street to Coney Island. But
this is like the eighties, nineteen eighties exactly, you know,
not even eighteen eighties. Uh. Well, I saw where one
guy actually went to class in the nineteen sixties. I
don't know if it was in this article or another one,
but paid a fagan to teach him the art of pickpocketing.
(12:55):
That was probably in that popular science article from the sixties,
this late article reference, Oh, I know what it was.
It was from the New York Times, but it was
an archived edition. Nice, So what do you learn how
to pickpocket? Right? Did he write about it or did
he say, like you can tell you, I'd have to
kill you. Well, the article was just on the lingo, really,
and then it's sourced the source of where the guy
(13:17):
got the lingo from, and it was this dude that
said he went to school. Yeah, uh, what else do
we have? Child? Children? Sadly, and a lot of countries
will pick Remember the human trafficking episode, we talked about
children being forced to beg guarantee that there are some
out there that are forced to pickpocket. Well, distracting once again,
(13:39):
the working in pairs, look at my shiny toy, or
while they're begging you, the other kid will come up
and you know, reach a little tiny hand in the pocket,
the old tiny hand, the old tiny hand. Trick um.
This one was my favorite chuck up. Apparently it's fairly
common to throw bird droppings on somebody so viciously then
(14:01):
offered to help clean it off. That is, I've read
this because I didn't believe that, and I saw people
on trip Advisor who it's not bird droppings, it's like
fake bird droppings and they'll sling it on people and
then they come up and go, oh god, I can't
believe that happened. Are you okay? Like, here's the towel.
You know, it's crazy. It just dawned on me. Um,
(14:22):
you mean and I were in New York once. I
think it was when we were on the Whatever show. Um,
when you and I were on the Whatever Show, and um,
we were standing in line at the shake shack. Is
at the name of the place it's in, Um, one
of the parks. What is it? Oh? Sure by park?
I can't remember. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Okay, So, um,
(14:44):
I think it is a shake scheck. Anyway, Um, we're
standing in line and this guy got bird droppings. It
fell right around him in a circle, didn't hit him,
And it made no sense physically how that happened. And
now I wonder if somebody was trying to pick his
pocket and failed, or else if they did and just
distracted him and didn't offer to help clean it off. Well,
(15:05):
the other trick I saw similar to this could have
happened there too, because apparently catchup and mustard, they'll squirt
that on you in a food line and then say, oh,
you know, I gott catch up on you here, let
me wipe that off, and while I do, let me
take your wallet. Let's help you old mustard trick. They'll
stage a fight. Maybe yeah, a couple of different guys
(15:26):
will stage a fight, and while you're distracted, the third
guy will come around and pick everybody's pockets. Basically, if
something suddenly happens out of the ordinary in um public,
you want to cover up your valuables. But you want
to be smart when you do that, because sometimes that
is a ploy in and of itself. You think you're
(15:46):
one step ahead of the pig pocket as well. Sometimes
you'll be on that crowded subway and someone will say, hey,
somebody just took my wallet. So of course the instinct
for everyone around that person is to pat their pocket
where their money or while it is. And of course
the other pickpocket on the train is going okay, left
front pocket sidekick, uh vra chevra jevra, what is it? Hairy?
(16:14):
Whoever has the best pocket, which would be in Brooklyn?
I guess little hipsters with best and uh boom done.
You just told him where your money was, and um,
I think in an even funnier way is when somebody
warns you to look out for pickpockets as a way
to get you to like pat where your wallet it is? Yeah,
which is like just pickpocket telling you look out for
(16:35):
pickpockets so you'll show them where your wall it is.
It's beautiful, Josh, you said anything unusual happening to you.
For instance, the very attractive woman came up to me
hitting on me, that would be very unusual. I would
probably know to feel around for my wallet because men
can be dummies when it comes to the charms of
an attractive woman. Yeah, you know the way to uh,
(16:56):
the way to get around that one. How's that morals
have more? Yeah, what do you mean? Just be like, madam,
I'm afraid I'm taking. Oh, well, if you're taken, but
if you're not, you're like, hey, you know what I'm saying.
I wasn't saying me obviously years ago. Oh got you
single check? Uh on the beach or compassion. If they're
(17:19):
on the beach, you might have someone pretend they're drowning,
like everyone rushes out there, and then all of a
sudden you have blankets full of purses and beach bags.
Or you might drop some change on the floor and
be like, oh, I'm so dumb, or your shopping bag.
Somebody might drop their shopping bag, and as a nice person,
you're gonna help him up. So the it's good on
(17:40):
one hand to have morals if you're in a committed relationship.
It's bad on the other hand to have morals if
you help people pick their bags up. This strange world
we live in, chuck it is um. You also probably
can't pick a pickpocket out in a crowd. I'll apparently
one of the longstanding traditions is UM to dress very
(18:05):
well sure, uh, like a wealthy business person, or at
least a business person. Yeah in this economy, right, yeah, exactly,
Um and uh yeah, that's a good one. Walk around
with a map and a camera around your neck. And
they'll also, um frequently have things to hide their hands,
whether it's a newspaper, a coat folded over their hands,
(18:27):
or a baby, a live human baby. Uh you mentioned,
uh when you would tell them inadvertently where your money was, okay,
And sometimes it will just either call it the stroke
or the fan, the old stroke, and that's when they
will kind of pre pickpocket you and just sort of
feel around where your wallet might be bulging from to
(18:49):
set you up for assumed to be picked pocket. So
how do you how do you get around this? Carry
a gun and shoot people to get too close. Yeah
that's one way, um, I think the uh that's the
Bernard gets way, Ums Brunson way. Thank you for doing
that on behalf of everyone listening to this episode. Thanks
(19:12):
Chuck um the The basically, the best way to prevent
pickpocketing is to be aware. You know, like I said,
if anything unusual happens out in public, just you need
to be aware. You should be aware anyway, if you
look like you're confident of where you are. Um, even
(19:32):
if you're a tourist, if you look like you are
aware of your surroundings, they're probably gonna pass you over.
For ned from which top falls? Who has like um
uh sunscreen on his nose and like a fisherman's cap.
And oh and whether you're trying to prevent pickpocketing or
just in general, you should never ever wear socks with sandals. Yeah,
(19:57):
this is dead giveaway. You're an instant mark. You got
that looking. We're all sorts of crime, that's right. Uh.
If you're traveling in other countries and other countries is
where it's likely going to happen. Because we'll discuss here
in a minute how it's not as big of a
problem here in the US anymore. Canada, that's right, but
in uh really all over the world except for North
(20:19):
America or at least the United States of Canada, it's
still a big problem. So you don't want to carry
your wallet in your back pocket like a big dummy
front pocket is safer. Money belt is even safer than
that money belt under your clothes. I'm wearing one right now.
You really I did when I traveled through Europe, did
you really? Yeah? I just can't bring myself too. They're
(20:41):
just they're so stupid looking now they are when you
go to pay for something and you gotta like reach
it down in there, and it's like flesh colored like
what they're trying to make it look like your credit
cards just levitating against your stomach. But uh, I did
because I was all paranoid about all this stuff when
I went to Europe. It's a smart thing to do.
And little did I realized that me and my buddy were,
(21:03):
you know, fairly tough looking dudes walking around and probably
not uh easy marks or at least there were lots
more around us that were way easier than us and
my my friend Chappy two I remember at the time.
So I almost want someone to try and pickpocket me.
He would be like a Hannibal Lecter. Yeah, in Hannibal,
he would like chase them down and beat them down
(21:24):
into the ground and that would that would be all
over for that pickpocket. Hannibal Lector didn't do that, but
he did stab at Gypsy to death for pickt Uh
Fannie packs don't do it because yeah, those are easily unzipped,
especially if they're around turned around to the back um,
which you would do to look cool. Oh yeah, on
(21:45):
the rear um. I locked my zippers together like in
my backpack with a little uh a little tiny lock. Yeah,
but that helps, but it's uh, they can still. I've
heard about people like cutting into a backpack even man. Yeah,
you gotta have some quick hands to do that and
some cajones. Um. They recommend to carry a dummy wallet.
(22:08):
I've heard this. I've never heard that does it pull
up with like cards that say like, sucker, you didn't
get my wallet. If you want to go to that
trouble you could. I think I would if you look
around and pay attention to like your junk mail and
your normal life, you're going to find things that look
like fake credit cards and fake money that you can
(22:29):
stuff your dummy wallet with. The thing is, it's like,
I mean, that's kind of outweighing these pickpockets, which is
kind of fun in and of itself. Absolutely, at the
same time, it seems like it's going to a lot
of trouble just to let them steal something like that's
still your wallet, even if it's a dummy wallet, like
(22:50):
it's an actual wallet. Yeah, that's true, it's just filled
with fake stuff. So you're saying, don't let it happen
at all, dummy wallet or smart wallet. Yeah, but I
mean dummy wallet's way to go, that's true. Uh, if
you're traveling, you want to uh, you know, as always,
they will remind you to keep a list of everything
you have, including your credit card numbers. Don't put everything
in one place. I have a friend at home have
(23:13):
access to all your documents so they can send them
to you in case it does get nicked. You know
that kind of thing. Just I call it common sense traveling.
That's great, great advice. Chuck um, I in my suitcase, Chuck,
keep copies photo copies because you can't call them z
rocks because that's copyright infringements. Right. Uh, they like my passport,
(23:37):
like basically everything I have photo copies of and you
keep it like I keep it in the lining the
liner of the suitcase. Everyone's gonna know this now when
they see you traveling. But it's good. It's a good
idea to keep them at the hotel, keeps them at home. Yeah.
Uh so that you can call a trusted friend who's
watching your dog or whatever and say, hey, man, not
(24:01):
only was my real passport stolen, my photo copies were
stolen out of the hotel. Can you give me my
passport number? Yeah? And don't carry things like your social
Security card and stuff like that. Yeah. I actually used
to carry my social Security card back in the day,
like a big dummy. Really, and when I was like sixteen,
I thought, man, I was important or something. You know,
take this exactly. Do you take social Security cards as credit?
(24:25):
Just knock it off my bill? Yeah. Uh So onto
the Slate dot com article. I think I think we've
arrived there. It's one of my favorite websites. That's a
good one it is, so who wrote this? Joe Kio Honey,
he's Hawaiian, I'll bet. And when was this? This is
(24:47):
this year? Huh February of last year? So this is
a current and up to date. Is a dying art
and a dying crime in the US? Yeah? And why,
I mean, where's pickpocketing going? Why is it vanishing if
if you know you can make some money off of it. Well,
a bunch of reasons they list. Um, crime as a
whole has fallen since the nineties. Uh, people don't carry
(25:11):
as much cash. It's harder to rip people off with
credit cards and debit cards because you know, there there's
more security involved with those. I would say close circuit
cameras everywhere might dissuade some guys from doing this. What else, Well,
you know we talked about the penalties traditionally being fairly small, sure,
(25:34):
but in some cases, in some states, Um, they have
raised it to where it's the same as armed robbery basically,
so it can be a felony. And um, suddenly you're
not just looking at you know, three months in the pokey,
which anybody can do standing on their head. You're looking
at like five years for pickpocketing. It's gonna make you
rethink your your trade, and it has in a lot
(25:57):
of ways. Also, apparently Fagan's are dying out and the
new generation basically is being blamed for the loss of
the art of pickpocketing. Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny.
Basically they said, these kids these days just don't have
the patience to learn pickpocketing, so it's easier just to
get a gun. Yeah. Well not even just patients, they're
(26:19):
less they're not as fearful of confrontation again thanks to
the gun. Yeah, kids are all stupid stick up men
these days. There's no finesse to it. There's not. Uh.
The New York Times in two thousand one, they had
a stat um in nineteen there were about twenty three
thousand reported pickpocketing pickpocketing crimes. About five years later that
(26:44):
number had fallen by half, and then by the year
two thousand there were less than five thousand, and sadly
today they do not even track it. No, it's so lostatistically. Yeah,
that's good. We should be rejoicing in this. That's Julian's work. Yeah,
he helped a lot yea with the cry thing. Yeah, well,
Times Square in and of itself changed entirely. Have you
(27:05):
ever seen basket Case, uh, where the guy carries his
mutant brother around in the basket and killing rampage. He
stays in Times Square And I've never been to Time
Square until like way after the crossover, I guess is
what you call it to where it's now very family
friendly and safe. And I was like, that's what Times
(27:25):
Square used to look like. Holy cow, it looks like Detroit. Yeah.
I was in New Jersey when it was crossing over.
So when I first started going to New York, it was, um,
they were still like Pete shows and other businesses I
won't mentioned on the podcast, and it was just starting.
Like the first uh family like theme restaurant went in
(27:49):
while I was living up there. I wonder how many
tax breaks that family theme restaurant got just you know, yeah,
I can't remember what it was, but I remember thinking
at the time, Uh, Times Square, look at it and
they're cleaning it up, sadly, no more brown bagging it.
What does that mean walking around drinking beer out of
(28:10):
a brown bag, picking pockets? I thought it meant bringing
your lunch from home. Ah yeah, or lunch pailing it. Okay, um, chuck,
there is one place where the art of pickpocketing was
revived recently, say around two thousand seven, where Europe as
a whole still is rampant with pickpocketing, um thanks to
(28:33):
the Apparently, according to the Slate article, UM the entrance
of Romania and Bulgaria, two places with legendary pickpockets into
the EU. So now people from Romania and Bulgaria can
travel around Europe much more easily and pickpockets wherever they stop. Interesting. Well,
good for them. I don't know about that, but that's pickpocketing.
(28:58):
That's how flesh color of money belts work. That's right,
I own one. Have you got anything else? Now? Well,
if you want to see some um in late nineties
staff members of How Stuff Works posing in photos? Is that?
Who that was to demonstrate? I was trying to see
one of them? Is that? How to stuffs? Catherine near
(29:18):
I think she's the mark in the photos? Interesting? Um,
you can write you can type pickpocketing in the search
bar how stuff Works dot com. And since I said
search bars, time for listener mail. Josh. I picked this
one out especially for this one because it involves cleptomania,
(29:39):
and I know that's an old show, but this was
pretty fascinating, I thought, and this is from anonymous, all right,
and it's a girl. Um huh, oh you know who
it is because she's a criminal cancer. I recently listen
to your podcast in Cleptomania, and I have to thank
you for giving a name to the disorder that has
(29:59):
plagued me for of the past four years. She didn't know.
She had never heard of it. Um. I first started
to steal when I was fifteen. I was at a
pizza hut with my family, felt a very troubling, consuming
urge to steal the silverware. After secretly putting the knife
and fork in my purse, I felt relieved and a
little guilty. Uh. That day was the start of a
theft rampage. I've stolen silverware, especially spoons, from every restaurant
(30:24):
I've ever been to, and even one that I worked at.
Right now, I have a collection of hundreds of sets
of silverware. At one time, I even began to label
them with the restaurant's name and the date that it
was stolen, but that became too much work. That's like
the Pickpocket and the Tinton movie. He has like all
of the Waltz he's still in like labels with the
(30:46):
date and interesting. Uh So, like you said in your podcast,
I keep this hidden and I felt tremendous tension and
guilt over the years for it, but never once mentioned
it to my therapist. I'm in therapy for depression and
depression and anxiety, which I learned is actually co morbid
with kleptomania. Yeah, the therapist is gonna be like, why
didn't you tell him years ago? Exactly, I could have
(31:07):
cured you already. I felt that I must apologize to
the businesses. I feel that I must apologize to the
businesses in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan. So if you're business
in Kalamazoo, Michigan restaurant and you're missing spoons, it's this
lady's fault. Chuck can tell you who it is. However,
I'm making a change today. Your podcast and my guilty
(31:28):
conscience has inspired me to tell my therapist and hopefully
be free of this nasty habit. My emailed I was like, hey,
can I read this on the ergement? Sure, that's awesome Calamazoo, Michigan.
Anonymous from Kalamazoo, Yes, very nice, congratulations and turning over
a new leaf. Yeah, tell your shrink about it. He'll
probably be very fascinated. And if anyone out there has
(31:50):
not heard the How Kleptomania Works episode, it's pretty good.
I magically transformed Chuck into a tube of lipstick. Yeah,
remember that you were great. If you have a revelation
about yourself or you're turning over a new leaf, whether
it's for the new year or not, it seems appropriate
that you tell us about it. You know where your
old pals Josh and Chuck. Um, you can tweet to us,
(32:12):
which our Twitter handle is s y s K podcast.
You can put it on Facebook. Um, that's Facebook dot
com slash that you should know. Those two are much
less private than just sending us a regular old fashioned email.
To stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com For
more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
(32:34):
how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
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are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. This is Charles W. Chuck
Bryant whiting his whistle. Uh and uh, the stuff you
(00:23):
should know? This is the podcast. Yeah, it's is off
to a terrible start. Good again, that's what consecutive bad starts? Oh,
we haven't hit four yet. Yeah, what bad starts are
just shows? Okay, maybe bad starts. Yeah, shows, we're coming
up on it. You gotta be close to four fifty, right, No,
(00:45):
coming up on four? I think I thought we were
over that. No, not yet. No, we would mention our
four hundred show. My goal is for us to make
it the five hundred and then after that all bets
are off the out. It's exactly right, right, So, uh,
what's your I think I might know what your intro is,
but that would be a wild stab in the dark.
(01:06):
I'd like to hear it because I don't have an intro.
Oh really, yeah, what's my intro? Well? I got one then, Okay,
the origin of the word sidekick? Have you ever heard this.
What does that have to do with pickpockets. I'll tell
you my friend back in the old days in London,
which is uh, you know obviously Oliver Twist made pickpocketing
very famous in London. Well, yeah, his character, Uh, they
(01:31):
had different their own language. It was will find out
his pickpockets have their own language period, all sorts of lingo,
like multiple names for everything. Uh. And back in the day,
they each pocket had its own name. The jerve j
E r V or the hair Vey was the vest
(01:51):
pocket and the kick I'm sorry, the pratt was a
back pocket and the kick was a side pocket. And
the kick was the most cult spot to to pickpocket
because it was on the leg and it was always moving,
and so people soon realized that that was the safest
place to put their stuff was in the sidekick. And
so the sidekick years later becomes a term for, you know,
(02:14):
someone helpful and maybe protective, Tonto like Tonto. So that's sidekick. Huh,
that's that's your first interest. I believe it is. I
would have picked a better one. It's no, that's fantastic.
That one's gonna go down and stuff. You should know
lore as the sidekick, and that was my first, but
(02:34):
I don't know barely appropriate. Do you remember when we
used to argue about that about whether you were or not?
What do we settle on that you're not? Okay? But
I know where to originates from Oliver Twist from the Sidekick. Well,
what's funny is there's a lot of stuff that has
to do with pickpocketing, Chuck, that did originate for from
Oliver Twist. Oh really Yeah, Like you were talking about,
(02:57):
like pickpocketing has it's only and go you said, um,
And it's kind of storied and almost legendary, and if
you dial the clock back a few decades, like it was,
UM kind of looked upon the way that maybe today
people look upon um pirates, you know what I'm saying,
Like they're criminals, but there there's so much art to
(03:22):
what they're doing. Maybe like somebody who could steal a
painting from a museum that you have to at least
grudgingly respect them. Well, and we'll talk to uh, we'll
not talk to we'll talk about some people to study this. Yeah,
I wish someone is here. Is that what this guy
is doing exactly? He's lifting your wallet? Um. In this
article you found from Slate that there were some experts
(03:44):
on you know, pickpocketing, and they they definitely think of
it as an art lost art. Specifically, I want to
mention the guy's named Bob Arnold, whose job it is
to travel the world and pose as a mark as
a tourist and then catch people and figure out what
they're doing interesting to keep abbreast of it. Yeah, so, um, chuck,
(04:04):
let's talk a little bit about the basics of pick pocketing, right,
which I think kind of give us a better view
of why people think that it's an art form. Um.
There's you've got a few different kinds of people involved.
Like there's uh, the low level pickpockets, who are really
just basically somebody who has uh a moral compass that's
(04:28):
off and um, an open bag next to him. Yeah,
the opportunist, Like, Hey, there's a co ed studying econ
one O one on the lawn and she's got her
iPad sticking out of her open backpack right next to her,
right which she has her headphones jacked into it turned
up all the way and is not paying attention because
(04:52):
she's been drinking. Well, if the headphones are on her
attached to the iPad, then the person is grabbing the iPad. Well, sure, oh,
I thought you meant like there was a person next
to her that was open and the iPads in there.
She's not studying with the iPad are only for Netflix,
and that's what I thought she was deserving. She's studying. Right,
(05:14):
Maybe we're talking about a different person, which one I
think we've just compled to the easiest mark there there is, right,
which is the unassuming college students. Right. Or you're at
like a coffee place or something like that, and there's
somebody next to you, and it's the kind of place
where you would expect somebody's going to be next to you,
and you're not really paying attention. You're involved in your
computer and their hands in your bag grabbing your wallet
(05:36):
or whatever. Or your sleep on the beach very common one. Yeah,
that one stinks because you want to be able to
sleep on the beach. You have your bag open next
to you, in your wallet sitting in it at a
coffee house and you're not paying attention to it. You
got what you deserved. If somebody steals, I mean it
stinks that there are people out there stealing in general,
and that you can't just go through life like that,
(05:56):
but we all know full well that you can't go
through life like that, and if you do, then you
have no right to complain. You can't even cancel all
of your credit cards. You have to leave one of
your credit cards open because punishment, Yes, that's punishment to yourself.
Uh well, we also we actually skipped to why people
pickpocket to begin with. It's mainly because it's pretty non
(06:17):
confrontational crime and you're never known or confronted, and you're
you're not like holding a gun, so there's no although
we did find out it's a felony a lot of states,
even just non weapon involved pickpocketing. Yeah, but it wasn't.
That's pretty new, is it. Yeah, for a very long time,
it was like if you picked somebody's pocket, you got
(06:38):
very It was a small sentence. You had to return
the money and apologize pretty much. Yeah, the cop brought
you over by your ear exactly. But um, for the
most part, like you said, it's not confrontational, So the
person who loses his or her wallet to a pickpocket
will probably have no idea who took it, won't know
for a long time. Um, And it's fairly safe if
(07:01):
you're good at it. It's safe crime. Yeah. Plus there's
no weapons involved, which is why the sentences were traditionally
not very big. It's almost victimless except for the victim
you know, Well it depends. I mean, if you're touring
Europe and you have everything including your passport and your
wallet in your back pocket and all of it's taken,
(07:24):
that is, there's a victim in that one. I knew
a victim in all of them. I knew a girl
who had her sunglasses ripped off her face and roam Italy. Okay,
that's not artful. Snatch guys, that's not artful, just a jerk. Um.
There was at the Starbucks by my old place, there
(07:46):
was a rash of kids just running in and stealing um,
people's iPhones right off the table and running out or
out of their hand, or stealing the computer that they
were working on the laptop and running out the door.
And there's a guy who has a coffee place in
um Grant Park that his there was just a robbery
(08:07):
and everybody was robbed um in that manner like people
just ran in and stole and ran out. Um. So
the guy's getting locks for the table so you can
slide your laptop in and lock it in place. Yeah,
that's sad that you have to do that, all right,
So where are we crowded subway? Yes, this is the
(08:29):
slightly higher in the hierarchy of pickpockets. Make it sound
effect here, Well, how about this, chuck. One of the
things I think that Um kind of gets to the
point across when you're describing pickpocketing, sure is saying when
you're talking about a scam, saying the old first, right,
and having maybe like old timey ragtime saloon music playing
(08:52):
in the background while you're describing it. So go ahead
with that. Jerry's like on the fly, um, crowded subway car,
which is called the old sandwich or sandwich for those
of you who are a little more proper. And that's
a lot of times these pickpockets working teams because you're
counting on the benefit of distraction. Yes, so tell him
(09:15):
how the old sandwich works. Well, the sandwich is a
you got a person in front who's called the stall,
and the stall suddenly maybe stopped short, um, and and
the person the target bumps into him, the mark. Yeah,
and then the hook or the pick or the wire Okay,
(09:36):
Um bumps into him it's expected that somebody behind you
would bump into you because it's the jerk's fault in
front of you. So you're paying attention to the jerk
in front of you while the guy behind you you
turn around and apologized to and after you know by
that time, the guy's already stolen your wall. So the
person in front of you ends up stalling it of
you is the stallk who you're like, why did you stop?
(09:58):
And while you're stopped, the guy who bumped in behind
you the hook was stolen you, Walt, I thought why
they turned around and said, boy, I'm sorry for this
jouk in front of me. They might have been stealing it.
I guarantee you. That's a variation on it that's called
the sandwich wrap, the low car wrap, Chuck. There's also
um so the people who who do the sandwich working teams. Um.
(10:21):
The team is actually called a cannon. Yeah. So that's
a group of organized pickpockets. Twist and his buddies exactly,
lead appropriately enough then by a Fagan, which is an
old hook, an old pick, an old master pickpocket who
um is named after, Um the crime boss in Oliver Twist, Right, Yeah,
(10:42):
Um and the fagon teaches younger pickpockets the ropes and
absorbs them into the cannon over time. What was that
movie that they mentioned, Oliver Twist. Well, now there was
another Harry in your Pocket. I think, yeah, that's what
it's called. I haven't seen it, but it's a James
Coburn movie from seventy three. Got believe that I will
be seeing you. Got no h no complaints there. So
(11:04):
a cannon is probably going to be the people who
are really good at what they're doing, because there's an old,
venerable guy leading the whole thing. Then you go down
like a couple of notches. You've got um bag workers
who like go for purses, right, yeah, mole buzzers are
I guess that's probably the English version. Well there, that
(11:27):
takes some skill because you're getting close to somebody, right,
um lush workers not that that hard. On the subway,
A lush worker would just target somebody who was coming
home drunk on the subway and they just, I guess,
open up their vests and take their wallet out and
close their vests, smack the guy in the face with
the wallet and then wait for the subway to arrive
(11:48):
at it stopped not very hard, so they were viewed
um kind of lower level E. But did you read
about the fob workers. Yeah, that was and it's hard
to say respect again because these are criminals, but the
fob worker really puts in his or her time, right,
So like this person just uses nothing but his index
(12:08):
finger and his middle finger boom yeah um, and just
walks through a subway on a on a ride and
just grabs like a couple of quarters, a dollar or
whatever's easy to grab. And apparently this one guy estimated,
um I think it was an old subway dick um.
He estimated that fob workers could get like four hundred
bucks out of a single subway ride. That's crazy. Well
(12:32):
that's probably from like Wall Street to Coney Island. But
this is like the eighties, nineteen eighties exactly, you know,
not even eighteen eighties. Uh. Well, I saw where one
guy actually went to class in the nineteen sixties. I
don't know if it was in this article or another one,
but paid a fagan to teach him the art of pickpocketing.
(12:55):
That was probably in that popular science article from the sixties,
this late article reference, Oh, I know what it was.
It was from the New York Times, but it was
an archived edition. Nice, So what do you learn how
to pickpocket? Right? Did he write about it or did
he say, like you can tell you, I'd have to
kill you. Well, the article was just on the lingo, really,
and then it's sourced the source of where the guy
(13:17):
got the lingo from, and it was this dude that
said he went to school. Yeah, uh, what else do
we have? Child? Children? Sadly, and a lot of countries
will pick Remember the human trafficking episode, we talked about
children being forced to beg guarantee that there are some
out there that are forced to pickpocket. Well, distracting once again,
(13:39):
the working in pairs, look at my shiny toy, or
while they're begging you, the other kid will come up
and you know, reach a little tiny hand in the pocket,
the old tiny hand, the old tiny hand. Trick um.
This one was my favorite chuck up. Apparently it's fairly
common to throw bird droppings on somebody so viciously then
(14:01):
offered to help clean it off. That is, I've read
this because I didn't believe that, and I saw people
on trip Advisor who it's not bird droppings, it's like
fake bird droppings and they'll sling it on people and
then they come up and go, oh god, I can't
believe that happened. Are you okay? Like, here's the towel.
You know, it's crazy. It just dawned on me. Um,
(14:22):
you mean and I were in New York once. I
think it was when we were on the Whatever show. Um,
when you and I were on the Whatever Show, and um,
we were standing in line at the shake shack. Is
at the name of the place it's in, Um, one
of the parks. What is it? Oh? Sure by park?
I can't remember. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Okay, So, um,
(14:44):
I think it is a shake scheck. Anyway, Um, we're
standing in line and this guy got bird droppings. It
fell right around him in a circle, didn't hit him,
And it made no sense physically how that happened. And
now I wonder if somebody was trying to pick his
pocket and failed, or else if they did and just
distracted him and didn't offer to help clean it off. Well,
(15:05):
the other trick I saw similar to this could have
happened there too, because apparently catchup and mustard, they'll squirt
that on you in a food line and then say, oh,
you know, I gott catch up on you here, let
me wipe that off, and while I do, let me
take your wallet. Let's help you old mustard trick. They'll
stage a fight. Maybe yeah, a couple of different guys
(15:26):
will stage a fight, and while you're distracted, the third
guy will come around and pick everybody's pockets. Basically, if
something suddenly happens out of the ordinary in um public,
you want to cover up your valuables. But you want
to be smart when you do that, because sometimes that
is a ploy in and of itself. You think you're
(15:46):
one step ahead of the pig pocket as well. Sometimes
you'll be on that crowded subway and someone will say, hey,
somebody just took my wallet. So of course the instinct
for everyone around that person is to pat their pocket
where their money or while it is. And of course
the other pickpocket on the train is going okay, left
front pocket sidekick, uh vra chevra jevra, what is it? Hairy?
(16:14):
Whoever has the best pocket, which would be in Brooklyn?
I guess little hipsters with best and uh boom done.
You just told him where your money was, and um,
I think in an even funnier way is when somebody
warns you to look out for pickpockets as a way
to get you to like pat where your wallet it is? Yeah,
which is like just pickpocket telling you look out for
(16:35):
pickpockets so you'll show them where your wall it is.
It's beautiful, Josh, you said anything unusual happening to you.
For instance, the very attractive woman came up to me
hitting on me, that would be very unusual. I would
probably know to feel around for my wallet because men
can be dummies when it comes to the charms of
an attractive woman. Yeah, you know the way to uh,
(16:56):
the way to get around that one. How's that morals
have more? Yeah, what do you mean? Just be like, madam,
I'm afraid I'm taking. Oh, well, if you're taken, but
if you're not, you're like, hey, you know what I'm saying.
I wasn't saying me obviously years ago. Oh got you
single check? Uh on the beach or compassion. If they're
(17:19):
on the beach, you might have someone pretend they're drowning,
like everyone rushes out there, and then all of a
sudden you have blankets full of purses and beach bags.
Or you might drop some change on the floor and
be like, oh, I'm so dumb, or your shopping bag.
Somebody might drop their shopping bag, and as a nice person,
you're gonna help him up. So the it's good on
(17:40):
one hand to have morals if you're in a committed relationship.
It's bad on the other hand to have morals if
you help people pick their bags up. This strange world
we live in, chuck it is um. You also probably
can't pick a pickpocket out in a crowd. I'll apparently
one of the longstanding traditions is UM to dress very
(18:05):
well sure, uh, like a wealthy business person, or at
least a business person. Yeah in this economy, right, yeah, exactly,
Um and uh yeah, that's a good one. Walk around
with a map and a camera around your neck. And
they'll also, um frequently have things to hide their hands,
whether it's a newspaper, a coat folded over their hands,
(18:27):
or a baby, a live human baby. Uh you mentioned,
uh when you would tell them inadvertently where your money was, okay,
And sometimes it will just either call it the stroke
or the fan, the old stroke, and that's when they
will kind of pre pickpocket you and just sort of
feel around where your wallet might be bulging from to
(18:49):
set you up for assumed to be picked pocket. So
how do you how do you get around this? Carry
a gun and shoot people to get too close. Yeah
that's one way, um, I think the uh that's the
Bernard gets way, Ums Brunson way. Thank you for doing
that on behalf of everyone listening to this episode. Thanks
(19:12):
Chuck um the The basically, the best way to prevent
pickpocketing is to be aware. You know, like I said,
if anything unusual happens out in public, just you need
to be aware. You should be aware anyway, if you
look like you're confident of where you are. Um, even
(19:32):
if you're a tourist, if you look like you are
aware of your surroundings, they're probably gonna pass you over.
For ned from which top falls? Who has like um
uh sunscreen on his nose and like a fisherman's cap.
And oh and whether you're trying to prevent pickpocketing or
just in general, you should never ever wear socks with sandals. Yeah,
(19:57):
this is dead giveaway. You're an instant mark. You got
that looking. We're all sorts of crime, that's right. Uh.
If you're traveling in other countries and other countries is
where it's likely going to happen. Because we'll discuss here
in a minute how it's not as big of a
problem here in the US anymore. Canada, that's right, but
in uh really all over the world except for North
(20:19):
America or at least the United States of Canada, it's
still a big problem. So you don't want to carry
your wallet in your back pocket like a big dummy
front pocket is safer. Money belt is even safer than
that money belt under your clothes. I'm wearing one right now.
You really I did when I traveled through Europe, did
you really? Yeah? I just can't bring myself too. They're
(20:41):
just they're so stupid looking now they are when you
go to pay for something and you gotta like reach
it down in there, and it's like flesh colored like
what they're trying to make it look like your credit
cards just levitating against your stomach. But uh, I did
because I was all paranoid about all this stuff when
I went to Europe. It's a smart thing to do.
And little did I realized that me and my buddy were,
(21:03):
you know, fairly tough looking dudes walking around and probably
not uh easy marks or at least there were lots
more around us that were way easier than us and
my my friend Chappy two I remember at the time.
So I almost want someone to try and pickpocket me.
He would be like a Hannibal Lecter. Yeah, in Hannibal,
he would like chase them down and beat them down
(21:24):
into the ground and that would that would be all
over for that pickpocket. Hannibal Lector didn't do that, but
he did stab at Gypsy to death for pickt Uh
Fannie packs don't do it because yeah, those are easily unzipped,
especially if they're around turned around to the back um,
which you would do to look cool. Oh yeah, on
(21:45):
the rear um. I locked my zippers together like in
my backpack with a little uh a little tiny lock. Yeah,
but that helps, but it's uh, they can still. I've
heard about people like cutting into a backpack even man. Yeah,
you gotta have some quick hands to do that and
some cajones. Um. They recommend to carry a dummy wallet.
(22:08):
I've heard this. I've never heard that does it pull
up with like cards that say like, sucker, you didn't
get my wallet. If you want to go to that
trouble you could. I think I would if you look
around and pay attention to like your junk mail and
your normal life, you're going to find things that look
like fake credit cards and fake money that you can
(22:29):
stuff your dummy wallet with. The thing is, it's like,
I mean, that's kind of outweighing these pickpockets, which is
kind of fun in and of itself. Absolutely, at the
same time, it seems like it's going to a lot
of trouble just to let them steal something like that's
still your wallet, even if it's a dummy wallet, like
(22:50):
it's an actual wallet. Yeah, that's true, it's just filled
with fake stuff. So you're saying, don't let it happen
at all, dummy wallet or smart wallet. Yeah, but I
mean dummy wallet's way to go, that's true. Uh, if
you're traveling, you want to uh, you know, as always,
they will remind you to keep a list of everything
you have, including your credit card numbers. Don't put everything
in one place. I have a friend at home have
(23:13):
access to all your documents so they can send them
to you in case it does get nicked. You know
that kind of thing. Just I call it common sense traveling.
That's great, great advice. Chuck um, I in my suitcase, Chuck,
keep copies photo copies because you can't call them z
rocks because that's copyright infringements. Right. Uh, they like my passport,
(23:37):
like basically everything I have photo copies of and you
keep it like I keep it in the lining the
liner of the suitcase. Everyone's gonna know this now when
they see you traveling. But it's good. It's a good
idea to keep them at the hotel, keeps them at home. Yeah.
Uh so that you can call a trusted friend who's
watching your dog or whatever and say, hey, man, not
(24:01):
only was my real passport stolen, my photo copies were
stolen out of the hotel. Can you give me my
passport number? Yeah? And don't carry things like your social
Security card and stuff like that. Yeah. I actually used
to carry my social Security card back in the day,
like a big dummy. Really, and when I was like sixteen,
I thought, man, I was important or something. You know,
take this exactly. Do you take social Security cards as credit?
(24:25):
Just knock it off my bill? Yeah. Uh So onto
the Slate dot com article. I think I think we've
arrived there. It's one of my favorite websites. That's a
good one it is, so who wrote this? Joe Kio Honey,
he's Hawaiian, I'll bet. And when was this? This is
(24:47):
this year? Huh February of last year? So this is
a current and up to date. Is a dying art
and a dying crime in the US? Yeah? And why,
I mean, where's pickpocketing going? Why is it vanishing if
if you know you can make some money off of it. Well,
a bunch of reasons they list. Um, crime as a
whole has fallen since the nineties. Uh, people don't carry
(25:11):
as much cash. It's harder to rip people off with
credit cards and debit cards because you know, there there's
more security involved with those. I would say close circuit
cameras everywhere might dissuade some guys from doing this. What else, Well,
you know we talked about the penalties traditionally being fairly small, sure,
(25:34):
but in some cases, in some states, Um, they have
raised it to where it's the same as armed robbery basically,
so it can be a felony. And um, suddenly you're
not just looking at you know, three months in the pokey,
which anybody can do standing on their head. You're looking
at like five years for pickpocketing. It's gonna make you
rethink your your trade, and it has in a lot
(25:57):
of ways. Also, apparently Fagan's are dying out and the
new generation basically is being blamed for the loss of
the art of pickpocketing. Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny.
Basically they said, these kids these days just don't have
the patience to learn pickpocketing, so it's easier just to
get a gun. Yeah. Well not even just patients, they're
(26:19):
less they're not as fearful of confrontation again thanks to
the gun. Yeah, kids are all stupid stick up men
these days. There's no finesse to it. There's not. Uh.
The New York Times in two thousand one, they had
a stat um in nineteen there were about twenty three
thousand reported pickpocketing pickpocketing crimes. About five years later that
(26:44):
number had fallen by half, and then by the year
two thousand there were less than five thousand, and sadly
today they do not even track it. No, it's so lostatistically. Yeah,
that's good. We should be rejoicing in this. That's Julian's work. Yeah,
he helped a lot yea with the cry thing. Yeah, well,
Times Square in and of itself changed entirely. Have you
(27:05):
ever seen basket Case, uh, where the guy carries his
mutant brother around in the basket and killing rampage. He
stays in Times Square And I've never been to Time
Square until like way after the crossover, I guess is
what you call it to where it's now very family
friendly and safe. And I was like, that's what Times
(27:25):
Square used to look like. Holy cow, it looks like Detroit. Yeah.
I was in New Jersey when it was crossing over.
So when I first started going to New York, it was, um,
they were still like Pete shows and other businesses I
won't mentioned on the podcast, and it was just starting.
Like the first uh family like theme restaurant went in
(27:49):
while I was living up there. I wonder how many
tax breaks that family theme restaurant got just you know, yeah,
I can't remember what it was, but I remember thinking
at the time, Uh, Times Square, look at it and
they're cleaning it up, sadly, no more brown bagging it.
What does that mean walking around drinking beer out of
(28:10):
a brown bag, picking pockets? I thought it meant bringing
your lunch from home. Ah yeah, or lunch pailing it. Okay, um, chuck,
there is one place where the art of pickpocketing was
revived recently, say around two thousand seven, where Europe as
a whole still is rampant with pickpocketing, um thanks to
(28:33):
the Apparently, according to the Slate article, UM the entrance
of Romania and Bulgaria, two places with legendary pickpockets into
the EU. So now people from Romania and Bulgaria can
travel around Europe much more easily and pickpockets wherever they stop. Interesting. Well,
good for them. I don't know about that, but that's pickpocketing.
(28:58):
That's how flesh color of money belts work. That's right,
I own one. Have you got anything else? Now? Well,
if you want to see some um in late nineties
staff members of How Stuff Works posing in photos? Is that?
Who that was to demonstrate? I was trying to see
one of them? Is that? How to stuffs? Catherine near
(29:18):
I think she's the mark in the photos? Interesting? Um,
you can write you can type pickpocketing in the search
bar how stuff Works dot com. And since I said
search bars, time for listener mail. Josh. I picked this
one out especially for this one because it involves cleptomania,
(29:39):
and I know that's an old show, but this was
pretty fascinating, I thought, and this is from anonymous, all right,
and it's a girl. Um huh, oh you know who
it is because she's a criminal cancer. I recently listen
to your podcast in Cleptomania, and I have to thank
you for giving a name to the disorder that has
(29:59):
plagued me for of the past four years. She didn't know.
She had never heard of it. Um. I first started
to steal when I was fifteen. I was at a
pizza hut with my family, felt a very troubling, consuming
urge to steal the silverware. After secretly putting the knife
and fork in my purse, I felt relieved and a
little guilty. Uh. That day was the start of a
theft rampage. I've stolen silverware, especially spoons, from every restaurant
(30:24):
I've ever been to, and even one that I worked at.
Right now, I have a collection of hundreds of sets
of silverware. At one time, I even began to label
them with the restaurant's name and the date that it
was stolen, but that became too much work. That's like
the Pickpocket and the Tinton movie. He has like all
of the Waltz he's still in like labels with the
(30:46):
date and interesting. Uh So, like you said in your podcast,
I keep this hidden and I felt tremendous tension and
guilt over the years for it, but never once mentioned
it to my therapist. I'm in therapy for depression and
depression and anxiety, which I learned is actually co morbid
with kleptomania. Yeah, the therapist is gonna be like, why
didn't you tell him years ago? Exactly, I could have
(31:07):
cured you already. I felt that I must apologize to
the businesses. I feel that I must apologize to the
businesses in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan. So if you're business
in Kalamazoo, Michigan restaurant and you're missing spoons, it's this
lady's fault. Chuck can tell you who it is. However,
I'm making a change today. Your podcast and my guilty
(31:28):
conscience has inspired me to tell my therapist and hopefully
be free of this nasty habit. My emailed I was like, hey,
can I read this on the ergement? Sure, that's awesome Calamazoo, Michigan.
Anonymous from Kalamazoo, Yes, very nice, congratulations and turning over
a new leaf. Yeah, tell your shrink about it. He'll
probably be very fascinated. And if anyone out there has
(31:50):
not heard the How Kleptomania Works episode, it's pretty good.
I magically transformed Chuck into a tube of lipstick. Yeah,
remember that you were great. If you have a revelation
about yourself or you're turning over a new leaf, whether
it's for the new year or not, it seems appropriate
that you tell us about it. You know where your
old pals Josh and Chuck. Um, you can tweet to us,
(32:12):
which our Twitter handle is s y s K podcast.
You can put it on Facebook. Um, that's Facebook dot
com slash that you should know. Those two are much
less private than just sending us a regular old fashioned email.
To stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com For
more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
(32:34):
how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
of our homepage. The how Stuff Works I find app
has a ride. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to
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