How Pickpocket Warning Signs Help Pickpockets

Kevin Beirne reports from an FT interview with James Freedman and writes:

I ask if there are certain hotspots where pickpockets strike. Tourist spots, Freedman tells me, especially places such as Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, where people’s attention is directed upwards and away from their belongings. He says that many pickpockets also operate near signs warning us to beware of pickpockets. The irony is that when people read the signs, they check their pockets or bag, thus alerting the lurking pickpocket to where their valuables are.

I have spotted pickpockets on the NYC subway system and at Rockefeller Center outside near the ice rink. Their eyes give them away. They can't watch what everybody else is watching, they have to look an identify their targets.  They are easy to spot, almost as easy as shills at three card monte games.

-RW


(via Marginal Revolution)