From mjoseph@terminal.cz Sun Feb  7 11:29:26 1999
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Subject: Re Theft in Rome
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 99 20:30:24 -0000
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From: mjoseph <mjoseph@terminal.cz>
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As long as we are involved in amateur psychologizing, and thoroughly 
off-topic, here's my 1 1/2 cents worth.

L. Hunsacker reported:

>Before we realized what had happened, they had spread out
>again, and we couldn't tell which one had the goods in her
>possession. I approached one of them and began a cautious
>interrogation; of course she knew nothing about any theft,
>nor did the one my fairly upset wife had cornered.
>
>After a while, as we were about to move on, having pretty
>much given up hope of ever recovering the wallet, another of
>the girls quietly emerged from the bushes along the slopes
>of the Pincio, holding it out in front of her, in our direction.
>Without a word, she handed it back to my wife and then turned
>and walked away.

I suppose two examples is only a trend, and not proof, but I suspect that 
this is standard when groups of crooks are confronted with the fact that 
they have been observed. Last summer friends (husband and wife) visited 
us in Prague. A group of four guys (I neither know nor care whether or 
not they were gypsies) filched his wallet using a ruse which fortunately 
I was familiar with, so I said out loud, "Watch that they don't steal 
anything." A few seconds later he started yelling "They got my wallet." I 
went after the four guys, cornered two in the subway, screaming the whole 
time "Give me back the wallet" (yes, in Czech). Meanwhile, my friend was 
holding the doors of the subway open so that it couldn't leave. After a 
brief while the guy with the wallet threw it out at us. My suspicion is 
that crooks would rather not have the goods on them, and not put up any 
resistance once discovered.

>We were of course relieved to have it back, especially
>because of the documents that were in it, but expected
>that at least the money would be missing (it was quite a
>bit, but not so much that we would have lost a lot of
>sleep over it). But no, every lira was still there.
>Nothing whatsoever was missing.

Ditto with us. Again, my suspicion is that they don't bother with 
counting their loot until they are safely away. Examining a wallet on a 
crowded subway might be suspicious.

Mark Joseph (who, having been robbed in all four countries in which he 
has lived, is currently of the opinion that we should go back to the 
practice of chopping off hands).
.