Wednesday, July 21, 2010
My evening pickpocket
I had an eventful metro ride tonight. As I was getting on the train with Dan, Martin and John-Nathan, people started pushing us from behind to get on the train. Nothing strange for Paris. I felt someone unzip my purse and it suddenly got lighter! I turned around and before I knew it started, yelling at this teen age girl. She had my billfold under her sweater that was hanging over her arm. The two girls and one guy with her, hopped off the train when she grabbed my billfold and she hopped off when I started screaming and the train pulled away.
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I had a purse snatching incident in a grocery store. The girl came up from behind as my purse was in the seat of the cart AND I WAS RIGHT NEXT TO IT. I turned to look at the grapes and felt a presence next to me. Turning around I checked for my purse...gone...turned again and there was a girl with long stringy hair and my purse under her arm as she walked toward the exit. I kicked off my sloppy clogs which would have tripped me and ran after her..grabbed her sweater and she pulled out of it. I immediately grabbed her hair up at the nape of her neck and began to pull her to the ground. She was screaming at ME and I was pulling on my purse. I looked up and yelled out, "I need some help here!" People behind counters and stocking the groceries were just dumb-founded. Within another few minutes of struggling and winning back the purse, a voice yelled out in the background, "I'll help you!" (It reminded me of Underdog's voice in the cartoon).
ReplyDeleteIt took five guys to hold her down after I pulled back with my purse. The man was a manager at the store and asked to talk with me when I checked out.
Continuing my shopping, a woman from behind a counter came over and asked me what happened. She'd watched the whole episode and thought the girl I was wrestling was having a seizure. Sheesh!
The store called the police and there they were when I checked out. They came up to me and asked me to step outside with them. It actually looked like I was the thief being walked outside.
They immediately congratulated me for catching the thief and asked if I wanted to press charges. YES! He then told me that if she'd gotten out the door, my identity would have been sold; credit cards sold, everything gone.
Can you believe that after that happened and I continued shopping throughout the store, there were women leaving their purses in the carts unprotected; walking away down the aisles with their purses sitting in the cart. There's a lot of easy pickings in a grocery store for thieves!
So did she still have your billfold when she got off the train?
ReplyDeleteKelly, I did!
ReplyDeleteDonna, people are so trusting. I live in a big city (Montreuil) next to a bigger city (Paris). The bag I had on me was steal proof or so I thought! I wore it across my body in front. But because they worked in a group, the thieves pushed us in the subway and I used both had to steady myself so that's how my steal proof bag got picked!