Pickpockets in Paris
 

A friend just returned from Paris and had her wallet stolen - scam involved - on the RER from the airport to her hotel. She is French and very savvy - was with three other people. When she went to American Express to report her card stolen and get a new one, she said it was packed with people doing the same thing. Her wallet was stolen from her purse, but others at AE said they lost money from from belts under their clothes and around their necks. <BR> <BR>Anyone recently back with helpful hints about how to deal with this?

I can see a wallet taken from a purse but from under their clothes? Were they comatose?

I'm with Puhleese here. I'm not saying it absolutely <I>can't</I> happen, but I'd be very interested to know exactly how these people "lost money from from belts under their clothes and around their necks." <BR> <BR>

The post wasn't about what part of their body the money was taken from - but I'm going to Paris in September and I'd like to know other people's experiences with pickpockets. And, is this epidemic in Paris at the moment. <BR> <BR>My friend is a very savvy and experienced traveler and a French citizen. Her purse was tucked under her arm and she was amazed anyone could extract her wallet with less than two inches of room in the purse and close to her body. And, I'm just repeating the stories she heard at the AE office from others. <BR> <BR>Any suggestions from frequent travelers about how to protect yourselves from this?

James, please take no offense. I am just so tired of all of the dire warnings of pick pockets. Paris is a lovely city and if you are careful and always aware of your belongings and who is around you, there is no problem. I've been there so many times and have never had any bad experiences. I just don't want to see this warning business deter visitors.

Again, I'm with Puhleese here. No offense, James, I'm just curious how people got their moneybelts & moneypouches picked if they were under their clothing, since wearing one of these is fairly common advice in order to protect oneself against pickpockets. <BR> <BR>I'm also curious about your assertion that this is "epidemic" in Paris right now. What do you base that on?

I seriously wonder what the actual percentage of pickpocket thiefs per 100 visitors is. We alwways seem to accentuate the negative&gt; I have been traveling over 40 years and so have most of our friends. The only instance of a theft or pick pocketing among us, is one friend , who is a litle dingy to start with left her purse open on a counter and walked away from it to look at something else. Even she admits it was her own fault. <BR>Just use common sense , have a look of purpose about you, not standing around going" OH GOLLY", don't look too obviously a tourist, and be aware. <BR>I really hope all this talk of pickpockets, muggings , etc doesn't deter some from traveling. what a diservice if it does. <BR> <BR>Another useful tip from I think maybe elvira, don't carry what you can't afford to lose!!!

Hi, I have been there a few times with no problems at all. I would suggest to carry on you only what you will need, so this way if something happens, it will not ruin your vacation, leave ID, credit cards, extra cash at the hotel.. I use a silver cigarette holder to put my cash, 1 credit card, etc.. Practice common sense & you should be fine.

I don't know about the money belts and pouches under clothing (although some pickpockets are incredibly deft), but the pickpockets problems in Paris is real, even for us French. Everytime I go to Paris, I get warnings from my family about the problematic spots (mostly around Notre Dame, and in the RER to and from CDG). It doesn't happen everyday, every place and everytime, but there are spates and the story about the RER rings true enough. There are thiefs that specialise in targetting tourists, and they know the RER coming from the airport is the best place, when tourists are tired, jetlagged, and more importantly have not had time to put their valuable in the hotel safe. <BR> <BR>One piece of advice is to take only the RER that connects directly CDG to Chatelet and Gare du Nord without stops in between, since it il less likely that thieves will use it (less chances of escape in a small station in case they are caught), and be specially aware of your surroundings in Chatelet station at rush hour. <BR> <BR>I am always very sad when I hear a foreigner's first experience of my country is being robbed ... <BR> <BR>Happy and safe travels to all. <BR> <BR>

To the doubters who believe that it is "near impossible" to lift an under-clothing or around the neck pouch. <BR>1) The target has been mildly to seriously careless in that something has made him/her a target; probably the "money" pouch is an obvious or suggetive buldge, or he/she has been spotted feeling or using it. 2) The thieves will work in teams of 2 or 3 and will be staked-out at a place that helps their plan work -- say a turn-stile, or narrow corroidor-like configuration through which the target will walk. (This can be rails that "funnel" people to an exit or entrance). 3) As the target (unaware) is about to enter the trapping device, one thief crowds ahead, and the other crowds behind. (This is a practiced manuver -- and in the context, to the target, this seems confusing, but not terribly abnormal or alarming.) 4) The target is now trapped -- cannot go forward, cannot go backwards, cannot step to the side. 5) In the confusion it is not terribly hard for one of the thieves -- or a third -- to lift the already-spotted pouch. 6) When the thieves have their goal -- or have taken too long getting there -- they vanish to already planned locations. <BR> <BR>This can all happen is less than 15-20 seconds. I have seen it done exactly this way in the Paris Metro. And, I was targeted and taken myself in the Prague subway. <BR> <BR>The main message is don't become a target. If you are targeted, you can be taken.

Just came back from two weeks in Paris and the only place I noticed an attempted theft out of a purse was at the information counter at CDG airport. A suit-wearing man surreptitiously brushed over the open purse of a woman while she was engaged in a conversation at the counter. He was standing so close to her I thought they were together until she turned around and accused him of going through her purse. She made quite a scene and he just melted away and went out the airport exit door. After that I was ready for just about anything but while using the metro and RER everyday, never had an encounter with a pickpocket. Be aware that the beggars were rather aggressive at times. We were a group of five women traveling together, we always had a good grip on our purses or backpacks and valuables carried were well fastened within the carrier. You don't need to be a victim of a pickpocket if you are street savvy. Paris is a fantastic city and I consider it extremely safe.

We were recently in Paris and saw a plain clothes policeman stop a young woman who had lifted a wallet. The policeman was dressed like a tourist and at first we didn't know what was going on - was he assaulting her? were they family members quarreling? Anyway the guy whose wallet was stolen didn't even know what had happened until the policeman told him. We are careful when we travel but I felt some relief that there were plainclothes police. Rather than a money belt, we wear a "sholster" that was designed by a man in Crieff, Scotland. It holds a passport and has a zippered compartment and fits under the arm like a holster.

I just returned from Paris and encountered no problems at all. We were wearing money belts, and were a bit cautious in busy metro stations and in crowded tourist situations, but even then, we really did not see any suspicious people. I think the best policy is to wear a money belt and be aware of your surroundings. But -- don't be paranoid, either. Paris seemed to me to be much safer than big American cities like New York or DC.

Having just returned from Paris on 6/16, I would like to add my observations. Although we personally had no problems, the pickpockets did seem to turn up quite a bit at heavily touristed sites, and especially at the Metro stops. We used the Metro extensively while we were traveling and there were regular, frequent announcements made in French and English that Paris had been experiencing an unusually large number of pickpockets and to please be very careful when getting on the Metro. We struck up a friendship with a woman who worked at Hotel Muguet, where we stayed, and she said that there seemed to be more pickpockets than usual and that several Parisians had been victims themselves. Having traveled extensively in large cities in the U.S. we were forunately aware of the importance of being careful with our belongings. Let me say, however, that this situation did not sour our trip at all, and we would come back in a minute. I agree with the previous postings that Paris is much safer than any large city in the U.S. We never felt unsafe or uncomfortable.

I'm sure there are pickpockets (I once had a Paris par Arrondissement lifted from my coat pocket - still po'd about that) but I've never had a problem with either the neck purse or cross-chest purse I wear. <BR> <BR>I'm dying to find out how pickpockets get underneath your clothes to get a money belt or neck pouch. Puts a whole new twist on "personal tour".

I'm thinking summer is the best season for pickpockets. <BR> <BR>I love the winter -- wallet in an inside pocket, "fanny pack" under a zipped/buttoned coat -- but summer is oh-so different. <BR> <BR>Money belts don't work with dresses (ohlala!), and the hanging wallet doesn't really either (low necklines). Purse across the chest works -- just have to be aware of what's going on around you (and hold onto it in the subways!) <BR> <BR>But I have a question -- what precautions do Europeans take? Money belts? Hanging wallets? None? Are Americans cornering the market on these products?

Certainly a plausible scenario, bo_jack. <BR> <BR>As you noted, the first part in the chain-of-events you outlined is quite likely that 'The target has been mildly to seriously careless in that something has made him/her a target; probably the "money" pouch is an obvious or suggetive buldge, or he/she has been spotted feeling or using it.' <BR> <BR>So that should probably be something that's mentioned when people suggest wearing moneybelts or moneypouches: try your best to be discreet when wearing and accessing it. <BR> <BR>

Last year I saw a very large woman wearing a neck pouch outside her clothing so that it dangled off of her chest. Later I saw a man with a waist pouch hanging outside his clothing off of his right buttock. Had either of these people been robbed, I am sure that the story about where these pouches had been would be quite different from reality.

I don't buy the story very much about pickpockets stealing from neck and waist belts and bo_jack gave no scenarios as to that part of the event. I could see a neck pouch if it were visible and you had a very open-necked top, someone could just reach at you, grab the cord and cut it possibly. The waist pouch would involve pulling down someone's pants, no? I think the key point here is these stories were coming from people at the American Express office trying to get refunds of TCs or something, I imagine, so they are fabricating how safe things were as they know AmEx won't pay if you are careless. People lie a lot, and even in the case of credit cards, I suspect they might lie thinking they could be responsible for any charges before reported. AmEx is not a police station, so there would be no reason for people to report things there otherwise. I have traveled all over the world, including third world countries, and ridden hundreds of miles on the Paris metro, have never used money belts, and have never been pickpocketed or even come close. I suppose some of this is luck and that I don't travel in tourist packs (which are targeted), but a lot of it is because I am not careless with my belongings and don't put up with nonsense from people trying to block me, etc., nor do I talk to strangers in places such as metro stations (I am amazed at some of the stories I've seen on here of people accepting "help" of various kinds from people at ATMs, people generously giving you metro tickets they can't use, etc, who then seem surprised when things get stolen). No one has ever tried to block, trip or otherwise bother me because I don't appear lost, confused, unaware of what I'm doing, etc., probably. I do feel sorry for older folks as I know they are often targeted because of their age, and there is nothing you can do about that; tourists are always targeted, of course, they have more with them to steal and don't pay attention or watch what they're doing. I am always surprised at how careless tourists are with their belongings when I view them on metros in various cities, on the street and everywhere. They are such easy pickings a lot of the time--like young women who walk around with those backpack-style purses, people carrying tote bags casually at their sides with the top wide open or setting it on the floor and not watching it, women dangling purses way down at their sides, men who carry money in open pants pockets. I've seen all of this a lot.

My wife & I recently returned from a week in Paris. Thanks to the "heads-up" I received from the many helpful posters on this site, we were very well-prepared. Specifically, I carried one credit card, one atm card, and no more than 1,500 to 2,000 FF in my front pants pocket (either loose or in a very small wallet). My wife carried a small shoulder bag with compartments that zip or close with velcro, and generally the only thing of value she would have in her bag was the camera. <BR> <BR>This preparation allowed us to be extremely carefree, as the worst case scenario would not have been that bad (as we kept a second ATM card, passports and additional credits cards back at our apartment). Of course, as luck would have it, we experienced absolutely no problems, whether on our many metro rides or at the crowded tourist spots, like Notre <BR>Dame, Tour Effiel, and especially Roland Garros during the open. We always felt very safe (stayed mostly in the 6th).