| Subject: Avoiding pickpockets |
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Just been in Rome and used money belt (husband) and pouch worn under shirt
(wife). We didn't take an expensive camera. Worked like a dream. Once time
at train station a group of children, woman, and baby approached by husband
who responded Non and repeated it louder and they went away. He wore a
long raincoat (light travel material) when planning a day in a crowded area
which also made pockets less accessable.
We rode many buses and metro trains and the crowds were sometimes thick but we didn't have anything taken. On the humorous side, I looked like an imitation of Marty Feldman looking for his money in his jumpsuit in a Mel Brooks film with the punch line Get a wallet whenever I reached for my silk pouch which I usually caught under the waistband on the side of my skirt or pants. The clerks did succeed in keeping straight faces and seemed totally understanding of why I would stash the cash. (With practice I got the money out better and sooner.) Our family was pickpocketed once in Paris on the subway by two twenty-something men. They distracted us by brushing my husband's pant hem and picking his pocket and then exiting quickly before the train left. (Unfortunately for them, he only had a pad of paper in that pocket but they did get that.) Pickpocketing can happen to anyone anywhere but precautions make it less likely. Betsy |