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Author Topic:   How Pickpockets Trick Your Mind
PixieJane
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Posts: 6281
From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010

posted April 04, 2015 10:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for PixieJane     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Fascinating and potentially useful article, IMO:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140629-how-pickpockets-trick-your-mind

When I was a runaway being trained by criminals there were similar tricks taught, and not just for pickpockets. For example, kids were often used to panhandle (and adults with little kids--not necessarily their own, btw--were also advised to do so) to pretend like we were praying at times. I wasn't even religious but felt uncomfortable as that was working incredibly well and just stuck with the other methods instead.

A more complicated one was me and other kids would go out of our way to look nice and respectable (white kids picked first) and then we'd have one come in (preferably black, but anyone who would make people nervous would work, including white punks and even a goth freaking out as a last resort) would make a scene playing on the prejudices and fears of the store while the rest of us started stealing like crazy...one 13-year-old boy even stole cartons of cigarettes from a rack that made a beeping noise as he opened it and stuffed them down his pants without anyone the wiser and I moved to block the view of him as I could clearly see the outline of the smokes in his clothes (cigarettes are incredibly useful on the streets, their least useful version being selling them on the black market for $1 a pack for a good name brand when a pack was usually over twice that in stores even back then) and he, mocking my concern, even flipped up his shirt and laughed as I put it down and told him to stop it (I was 15 myself, though delayed puberty).

The more sophisticated ploys required an adaptability as well as some subtly leading questions or comments (or noticing them in those coming to us) and gauging the reaction...in a way it's "streetwise psychology."

(I just stopped a wall of text on this...YW.)

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Gabby
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posted April 15, 2015 01:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Gabby     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wow, what a story. That's some amazing experiences you've had at such a young age. What led to you being on the streets?

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PixieJane
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From: CA
Registered: Oct 2010

posted April 15, 2015 03:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for PixieJane     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Long story short my best friend found out she was going to flunk her freshman year and decided to run away from home rather than endure another beating (these were intense, she'd be black and blue and once had a bald patch from where her father ripped out her hair) and I agreed to go as I was being forced to live with my mom by the courts and was very resentful about that and I also loved my friend. We were both 15.

A funny part in retrospect was I called a runaway hotline thinking they'd give us tips on how to runaway and not get caught.

And after I made it clear to the hotline operator that my friend had already sought help from the abuse and it turned out bad and we were not going to do that again (and why is it so hard for adults to realize kids screwed over by the system aren't inclined to trust it again?) and all that I was given direction to Covenant House (called C-House by kids on the street and what I'll call it from now on) where we would supposedly get a few nights off the street anyway. Unfortunately this was a lie (I don't know if the operator knew that) since Texas law is very strict and unfriendly to kids, if we'd made it in then by law C-House would report us immediately to the authorities and very likely we'd both be home very soon (and she might be dead, though it would've been an easier death than the one she endured on the streets, assuming we didn't just run away again even less trusting of adults than we were before).

Yet less than a block from C-House (we walked for hours to get there and I think it was a little after 10PM) several kids who slept on a porch (excellent security for the store as any vandalism or such got them reported so the kids protected it at night) asked us if we were going to C-House and then warned us what would happen if we did.

They asked what made us think to go there and I told them about calling the runaway hotline which had them laughing and then inspired them to go find a payphone (still the 90s) to call the cocaine hotline saying they were new to the city and if they could hook them up. The lady operator did the one thing someone being trolled by kids should never do and shrieked at him at the top of her lungs. He pulled the phone away from his ear so we could all hear her outraged shouts and we all started laughing like Bart & Lisa listening to Moe threatening to find and kill them after the kids prank called him.

This put them in a good mood and I also impressed them with my skateboarding tricks so that we ended up being accepted by them, and through them the krew. While we were fairly independent (and thus deniable assets) plenty of adults used us in various criminal enterprises, and on top of that some older guys (runaways now adults) also taught us what to do and how to get by. As an example I was taken supposedly because of my size to slip through a small window that a 19-year-old jimmied open but in retrospect (and for reasons) I now realize that the real reasons is that I was the canary so if there were vicious dogs then they'd attack me and they'd know to run (and if there was a person they'd be less likely to shoot a small girl than an adult male, not that the 19-year-old and the boys of our krew would've done anything for me if I was harmed). But the coast was clear and I opened the backdoor for them...that's an interesting story itself but I don't feel like explaining it right now so suffice to say that any stolen goods could then be taken to a fence (person who dealt in stolen goods) who would burn (rip us off) us kids bad (we essentially got crumbs because we had no real options, and I couldn't go or I'd end up in a pimp's stable) and paid in drugs that we then had to sell (saving the fence some work and then blaming us for getting so little money, say they'd give us $40 of pot to sell, probably the worst quality they had, for something they'd sell for over 6x that and get paid in cash).

Generally speaking, adults were not our friends--on either side of the law.

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