Idea to annoy pickpockets...good idea or bad idea?

It's simpler to wear a money belt. In three weeks in Italy last fall we never experienced any attempt at theft. Be alert and cautious, but ruses aren't necessary.

Of course I wear a money belt. But I also need to carry some money outside that for day use.

I don't think I would want to explain the purpose of the BBs if the TSA ever stopped me because of them. In any case, I don't think it's worth the risk. Now, what I have done is carry a small travel wallet that contains just enough money for the day's expenses. In that wallet I also carry a small note to the pickpocket. (I don't want to attract one especially and don't try to look like a target, but if I am picked I want him to have a little gift from me.) You'd be surprised how easy it is to look up online or find someone locally who can translate a little message to the thief in the language of the place you're going. Anyone who grabs my wallet gets the nastiest, filthiest, most vulgar attack on himself, his mother, and his dog that I can come up with. That's enough to make me feel better if I'm ever "gotten." But to purposefully make yourself look like an easy mark is just to ask for trouble.

I think these ideas of decoys or fake billfolds are funny but stupid. Why would you want to encourage a pick pocket to get that close or make you a target? On the other hand, maybe you should do it. That they will focus on you and not on me.

Exactly how much noise do a a dozen bb's make when they fall on a city street?

^^^ Not nearly as much as they make falling on the floor of metal subway or bus floor.

I think you may be overthinking the issue. Wear a money belt. If you do, you won't have to worry about pickpockets and nature can proceed on its course...

I read a book recently where one of the characters had fish hooks sewn into the pocket where he kept his wallet. The idea was that if a pickpocket went for the wallet, he would get his hand caught on the fish hooks and would be unable to get it loose. Sounds like a neat idea, but I don't think I'd want some thief with his hand caught in my pocket. Who knows what he might come up with in the other hand? Like a great big knife, maybe.

Trying to figure out what is the point in all of this grand scheme? First of all, who holds a purse or wallet upside down to unzip it? No one, thus, no metal balls will be falling out. 2nd, a good portion of the pick-pockets in many countries are Roma and I am betting that most of them can't read, so your little note is useless. Even if they can read, I doubt they would bother with it. If it doesn't look like money, it is uninteresting. Just wear a money belt or a neck pouch and enjoy your trip.

Okay. How about this one:
Stop off at a coin dealer, and buy some 1920s vintage obsolete "inflation notes". You know. The ones that look really neat, and are in denominations of 100,000 Marks or so. They only cost about a buck. Put those in your "bait wallet", and imagine the look on the pickpocket's face when he sees the "value" of the notes. Then imagine the look on his face when he finds out they are totally worthless!

How does one extract his own wallet with fishhooks sewn into the pocket?
Ow. I have a money belt (and a pouch; depends on my outfit - so girly of me) for the "trip bank" and whatnot, and the day's cash goes in a couple of pockets, one with a zipper (you can have one installed by a tailor for a reasonable amount of cash, or buy travel outfits with them, or wear extremely tight jeans). I think the most annoying result for a thief is not being able to get anything or not getting much at all.

I'm with Jo. What exactly is the reason to go all to this trouble? To be able to gloat over having annoyed a pickpocket? Really? (And I cannot imagine that getting a vintage back note is going to impact a pickpocket anyway, though it does provide good business for vintage note dealers, so in this economy that has to be a good thing.) I have no sympathy for pickpockets, but I am uncomfortable with a set of strategies designed to purely to annoy. Isn't foiling them by wearing a money belt enough?

The ultimate solution: get a really big wallet and put a rattlesnake in it.

DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!

I had a money belt that I brought last summer with me, but never ended up using it. When you're a girl, you don't want to have to go to the wc to get into your money whenever you need some cash! I kept my excess money hidden in my suitcases at the hotel (sure, not always the safest, but better than keeping it all in one place) and then kept the rest in my purse. I had a purse that is a crossbody purse (so not easily taken off of me) and I would tie the zipper of it so that it wasn't easy to get into, and I walked with my hand on the end where the zipper was tied. I looked confident, was never bothered. Don't attract attention to yourself, or make yourself look like a target--either by handling money out in public, or reading a map in the middle of the street and looking clueless, and you'll be mostly left alone. Be smart and most of the time you'll be fine. I wouldn't show an obvious wallet, I wouldn't make anything obvious. Let other people make themselves targets!

Ed (Albany), I'm all for foiling and thwarting the pickpocket. In the pre-TSA days the BBs tactic would have been worth a try... just to create a scene. An exposed dummy wallet or passport wallet stuffed with Monopoly money might work but may not because the pickpocket will see it as too obvious. But, on the other hand, he won't know until he takes it. It's a pity you can't use a mouse trap.

The downside of the ploy is that you are baiting the perp, attracting attention, in hopes of creating some fun. More likely, in becoming a target, the danger is a thief may take advantage of other items (jewelry, your daybag, your wifes possesions, etc) I do not think I would want to underestimate the skill of some of these pickpockets.

Better yet, have the wallet hanging out of your pocket on the lanyard. That way the pickpocket thinks someone else has already cleaned you out. ;) I always joke, around Haloween, about putting a big empty bowl on the porch with a note, "Please take just one." The kids who come upon the empty bowl won't think I'm the jerk who doesn't buy candy. Rather they'll blame some unknown kid who got there before them and took the whole bowl. I've never done that, but it gives me a chuckle thinking about it - warped sense of humor, I know.

I want to appear like I do not have a wallet, or at least that I don't have a wallet that could easily be reached by a pickpocket. If you look like an easy target, you are just inviting trouble is my way of thinking. It would be like deliberately looking like you were oblivious to your surroundings so someone might attempt to steal from you. That is what decoy police officers do, not tourists. Saying that, however, I am one of those people who regularly carries two wallets. Stuffing my cards and I.D. into just one results in one fat wallet, but I actually started doing this so I would have a "throw away" wallet should I ever be mugged. The disposable wallet had some cash in it (less than $20 usually) and maybe one credit card. Friends laughed at this peculiarity of mine . . . . that is, until I was mugged one night in the parking lot outside the laundromat as I was unloading my basket of dirty clothes. A guy with a knife at my back demanded all my money and he got whatever was in the second wallet, which wasn't much. It being laundry day, most of my money was in quarters, which he didn't get. I did not enjoy the experience, but at least I didn't lose much money or have to go through the hassle of getting new I.D. or credit cards. This theft took place in the U.S., about two blocks from where I was living at the time. I have felt far safer on the overseas trips I have taken than in many spots I've traveled at home.

One note of caution relative to this discussion: Sometime in the mid-90's, a friend of mine was on a NATO business trip in Brussels. He used the two wallet system. He decided to take a walk in the evening in a park near his hotel, and of course carried the wallet that had little cash and no credit cards. He was accosted by two robbers in a remote part of the park, who demanded his wallet. He gave it to them, but they were so irritated by the small amount of cash that they beat him within an inch of his life, and he spent several weeks in a Brussels hospital. He later found out that the park was notorious for such attacks (sorry, I can't remember the name of the park). I guess the message here is to be careful where you go for a walk after dark.

Hi Ed, Jan. 2011, Rome Italy, Republica metro station, Sat a.m. My husband and I were getting on a train and two Roma women with child in arms tried to get to my husbands wallet which was in his left front pant pocket. He was wearing a money belt and had only a days worth of Euros to be lost in his wallet. As he was stepping onto the train he felt something strange and in a sudden downward motion he grabbed a woman's hand that was still in his pocket. He gave her a good yell, confirmed that he still had his wallet and let her go. Somewhere he had read to put a large rubber band around his wallet a couple of times and he feels that the friction was enough to make a difference. Sounds somewhat goofy but it worked for him. Wear a money belt, consider a rubber band and enjoy your trip. Susan

I go to Europe every summer and have traveled from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, from the Pacific thru Eastern Europe and Turkey. I always wear a money belt containing the necessities that belong in there and put my daily spending money in a zippered chest pocket. I have never knowingly been attacked by a pickpocket and I certainly have never lost anything to one. So simple and so safe.

Contrary to popular belief, the European populace isn't out to get you or your wallet. The chances of any of these "ideas" working out well are even lower than the chances of you being pickpocketed.

Love it Ed!!!