"In the can," in filmspeak, usually means a successful project completed. For ITV's London Weekend Television, it's a wrap. Its documentary, Beware Pickpocket, starring Bob Arno and his surreptitious footage of real street thieves in action, was shot over ten days in March.

Simultaneously, CBS investigative reporter Joel Grover searched the Internet for the authority on illicit acquisitions, and found our own Professor of Pickpocketry, Bob Arno. Grover and his team went to Las Vegas asking Arno to lift wallets from distracted tourists on the strip, cameras rolling, for his feature Special Assignment. Arno, not a gambler, anxiously reflected on the thousands of surveillance cameras and plainclothes security officers that protect the pilgrims to this gambling mecca. But he agreed, and succeeded, with a CBS security officer assigned to stay close. All stolen items were returned to their owners on camera, prompting expressions worthy of Candid Camera.

Back in London, ITV has now completed editing its primetime documentary on the parasitic subculture. Producers visited Arno's private video studio in Las Vegas to select clips from his vast collection of exclusive footage. In March, Arno and his wife were flown to London for further filming and interviews. There, a conspicuous crew of twelve tailed Arno as he picked his way through Walthamstow Greyhound Racetrack. With tight security, loose punters, and an enclosed space, Arno operated on the up-and-up, if such can be said of a pickpocket.

Then the Arnos led the film crew through the pickpocket-gauntlet which is Prague. The breathtaking Czech city is rightly considered a pickpocket capital.

"I'm an entertainer," Arno explained, referring to his insistence on private security accompanying his off-stage thefts, "not a street thief. I've got nerves of steel, no pun intended, but I'm not about to lift a wallet in a street situation without some assurance that I won't be punched in the nose."

The CBS Special Assignment segment aired May 2. ITV's Beware Pickpocket is scheduled for June 5 in the UK, elsewhere later.