Pickpocketing is another skill for the smart, and this article exposes how to pickpocket someone without them knowing or getting caught. You’d be tensed when attempting to pickpocket, especially if you’re a beginner.
Meanwhile, pickpocketing is not a skill for everyone; only individuals with unique abilities and natural stealth endowment can cope.
Nonetheless, anyone can practice the sleight of hand and learn a decent level of dexterity to pickpocket people. When fine motor skills and dexterity are lacking, you can’t pickpocket and get away with it. You must be so good that when you after pickpocketing from people’s pocket, they wouldn’t sense your hand in their clothing.
What is a pickpocket person?
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A pickpocket person is someone that picks from the mark’s pocket, typically an act of stealing. The pickpocket can steal a wristwatch, money, necklace, or any visible or pocket valuable. Usually, pickpocketing requires some level of dexterity, such that it matches the consciousness level of your mark or target. As a pickpocket, you must misdirect your target to become a victim.
Who is a mark in pickpocket? The mark is the target or victim of a pickpocket. Most of the time, marks are assessed before being approached by the pickpockets. Some marks must be avoided to avoid getting caught when pickpocketing.
Is pickpocketing illegal?
NO, pickpocket is illegal and a theft crime. When a pickpocket is caught, they are penalized based on the value of the item pickpocketed. It can also be considered a misdemeanor, and a pickpocket will serve a jail term.
How Pickpocket Works
Pickpocketing is not a new hustling trick; it has been around time immemorial. Around the Middle Ages, a pickpocket was a cutpurse since most persons had no pocket. So, instead of picking from people’s pockets, a pickpocket cuts people’s purses and escapes with falling coins or whatever drops.
How pickpocketing works is simple; a pickpocket distracts the mark using any distraction method or model. It could be bumping into the mark, hosting an attractive game, clowning, surrounding the mark as a group, etc. The idea is to misdirect the mark or target and get them not to feel when their value is stolen from their pocket.
How to Pickpocket Someone
This section reveals the steps involved in pickpocketing. Below are the steps regarding how to pickpocket someone:
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Find a Spot
Your best spot has to be a crowded area or any public place with many passers-by. Do not select a less busy area, though. You may also pickpocket on the train or a bus, but you must operate as a group to succeed. Your companions must block the view of other passengers while you do the deed.
A crowded area is preferable because it blends you to the mark without suspicion. The mark thinks you’re just another passer-by, although you have your team keeping eyes on the treasure.
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Drop the Bait
You can start with the bait. A typical pickpocket’s bait is the “Beware of pickpockets” or “High Pickpocket Area” signs. The reason for placing this sign or hanging around in the area with this sign is to get your mark to touch where they store their valuables.
The mark is trying to be protective, but at the same time revealing where the treasure for pickpocketing lies. It could be their backpack, front or rear pockets, jacket pocket, etc.
Most of the time, males store their wallet in the rear pocket and phone in the front-right or left pocket, depending on their handedness.
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Spot Your Mark
The market, as mentioned earlier, is your target. You must study and know the suitable person to pull the pickpocket trick. Typically, individuals that are distracted are most targeted, and so you watch out for people that are not fully conscious of the area.
You must be able to tell how your mark would react when you get closer to them. Some people will immediately guard themselves or assess you when you bump into them, while others would merely smile and keep going.
If your target appears tough, avoid them, or you can engage them in a conversation if you sense you can get away with pickpocketing them.
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Prepare to Trick the Mark
The entire link of actions, events, and interactions with your mark must be natural and routine. Of course, you do not want the mark becoming suspicious, except focusing on the distraction you applied. As mentioned earlier, there are various pickpocket distraction models you could use to distract targets.
Make sure to practice whatever model you select with your accomplice before getting on the street. The idea, besides, is merely to trick your mark into thinking that nothing is happening while a lot is going on already.
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Engage
The final stage, the phase or step of pickpocketing, is to engage. Depending on your accomplice, the mark, distraction model, and the location, you may either bump into the mark or have your accomplice bump into them.
You can get your accomplice to perform a distracting activity such as dropping an item in front of the mark for the mark to halt. As the mark halts for the accomplice to pick up the item, another member bumps into them while engaging the pickpocket immediately. If you don’t engage immediately, the mark regains consciousness after the brief collision.
Whoever grabs the valuable, which could be a wallet, money, phone, wristwatch, etc., must hurry away.
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Cut Purse
Alternatively, you may introduce the olden “cutpurse” technique to steal from people. However, your mark must wear a jacket or carry a bad you can cut through easily.
How do pickpockets know which pocket to steal from?
To know which pocket to steal from, a pickpocket factor in lots of conditions:
First, if a group of individuals is walking by, the pickpocket looks for the weakest link or someone that not paying attention. Such person could be busy with their phone or have a headphone affecting their consciousness in public.
A pickpocket also looks out for someone that appears dump. Dump people in public are good pockets to steal from, and they are typically respectful and nice people. They have no exposure to street life and are easily tricked by unnecessary activities around them. For instance, a pickpocket can bump into them, and they’d still help the pickpocket pick up their item while smiling sheepishly.
Another way a pickpocket knows the pocket to steal from is how marks dress. For example, someone dressing for show-offs and adorning themselves with jewelry, LV or MK bags, and a flagship smartphone is a target. The mark has all a pickpocket needs already and becomes a target.
People with many items also make god pockets to steal from. If someone carries too many items without walking in a group, they become a target. A pickpocket bumps into them, the item(s) falls, and the accomplice escapes with whatever they can.
Finally, the most used method to detect whom to pickpocket from is the “Beware of pickpocket” sign. Typically, a mark will react to the sign by touching the pocket or bag containing their item, which signals the observing pickpocket.
How easy is it to pickpocket someone?
It is quite easy to pickpocket, and most pickpockets just trick the mark into distraction before stealing their wallet, phone, money, etc. First, just locate a crowded spot, such as departmental stores, markets, trains, buses, parties, nightclubs/discotheques, etc.
If you operated in desolate areas, you’d find it difficult to pickpocket. Besides, you can’t jostle a passer-by that is very security-conscious, especially when you approach them.
Final Thoughts
What pickpocketing requires is dexterity, and it is a natural ability you can develop artificially or through practices. You’d also have to know how to read people correctly and distract them before engaging.
Finally, consider working as a team to improve the chances of pickpocketing and getting away with it. In essence, when you spot the mark, distract, engage, dip, pickpocket, and flee.
