Eiffel Tower Pickpocketing Gang Arrested

And the kids will not be held -- because the French don't hold kids. And the adults if deported will be back across the border and in business almost immediately because there is no border control between Romania and France.

Quick! Go to the Eiffel Tower before they are back in business. (Do you really believe they made $3000 each per week? Sounds a bit far-fetched.)

I agree with you, Norma. I think that around €3,000 a week has got to be low. I expect they worked 7 days a week, so that's only €428 a day. If they took a day off each week it is only €500 a day.

I expect that they got well over €100 each time they were successful, but that is only 5 successful hits a day, 15 for each gang of three.... just over one an hour for a 12 hour day.

Does anybody think they only struck once an hour?

While it's great that this one gang has been disrupted, it's important to remember that there are many more out there so I certainly wouldn't let my guard down if touring around Paris. As someone else noted, the French don't detain children. Last year when the staff at the Louvre went on strike due to aggressive pickpockets, the police made an effort to clean-up the problem. Some of the children were back "conducting business" within a few hours of being arrested. The adults involved in this recent case will likely be back in France before the Police finish the paperwork on this incident.

Wear and use properly your money belt. They are real hard to pickpocket when worn properly.

I agree with Charlie.
Although they are a pain to wear.
But they do remove the worry about having vital items stolen.

get a hotel with a room safe and don't carry your valuables with you.

An acquaintance of mine had a wallet lifted at the Orsay and by the time he noticed and reported it that afternoon, 20,000$ had already been charged on his card. I think $3000 a week sounds like what teen girls probably get in just cash. This is organized crime and there is big money in it.

I object to the assumption that pickpockets come from Romania. I.e. gypsies, or Roma. Nothing in the news story said that.

Reread the story....it clearly states that those arrested were Romanian nationals:

Investigators started hunting the Eiffel Tower ring last September. The seven men arrested were Romanian nationals. Prosecutors say they also operated in London and Rome.

That part was below the picture of the Eiffel Tower.