Jerusalem Pickpocket

Posted by davidfoleyfam on 03/30/20 09:33 PM

I just returned from a week long tour of Isreal with 4 days in Jerusalem. I was pickpocketed for my first time while in Jerusalem. It was just outside the Damascus gate of the old city on my way back to my hotel. The street name is Ha-Nevi'im and is also known as the "street of the prophets". It was my cell phone which was pickpocketed from my front pants pocket. The way that the pickpocket worked was to approach me with a fanfold set of postcards from the side. As I tried to walk away from him he continued at me aggressively and pushed into me holding the postcards up in front of my face. I pushed away from him and then realized in about 2 steps that my cell phone was missing. But upon turning about i was unable to identify him. Because he approached me from the side and from behind I didn't get a good look of him before or while it was happening. This happened at about 4:30 in the afternoon in plain sight in this market area. My wife and myself tried asking for help from the workers of the coffee shop at the spot which was Ha-Nevi'im street number 14. They did not say anything to us but only went about their work. I reported this incident to 2 police officers further down the street. They said I could fill out a police report at the nearby station but did not give me directions on how to find the police station. They did not go out of their way to help me but appeared to be putting me off on what was for them a minor issue. The next day I had some free time from my tour and I was able to locate the police station on Salah E-din Street which is just outside the Herod's Gate of the old city. Here I talked with a number of officers about my complaint. After waiting about 1 hour and 15 minutes one of them took my details. He told me that they had security cameras in many locations and that they would do a check of these to investigate. I was given a case ID and a password for a web site where I could check in on the status of my case. While at the station I also spoke with a couple from Holland who were reporting a very similar pickpocketing from Nablus Road which is just one street over from Ha-Nevi'-im. The pickpocket in their case also used the fanfold postcards as a distraction and also bumped into the women as he took some items from a wallet she was wearing around her neck. I kept checking the website to see any details of my case. After about 2 days the police had posted that my case from dropped because they were not able to locate a suspect. Unfortunately I was not careful or prepared enough to avoid being pickpocketed. Fortunately my cell phone was not an expensive model and although I didn't expect that I would be able to recover it I did feel like I should report it. I did report the phone as stolen to my carrier so that it would be put on the "blacklist" but my understanding is that it is still possible for the stolen phone to be reprogrammed for resale.