A4      THE TALL SWEDE JOURNAL       MONDAY MAY 1, 1995

Pickpocket on Shooting Spree

Continued from Page 1
"A pickpocket working in the European countries won't be arrested if she's under the age of 18, pregnant, or carrying a baby. She may be caught and confronted, but the police are powerless to stop her activities."
A tourist in Via Condotti, Rome, is worked over by a young gypsy team.
Mr. Arno spent about four months last summer, mainly in Rome, Florence, Paris, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca, tracking and filming the thieves. He now spends every spare minute at his own video editing suite, logging and assembling hours of footage.
The cutting room floor is littered with strips of bouncing paving stones, evidence of the miles covered by the video team




A savvy victim (at left in both pictures) fights off the advances of a gypsy pickpocket team working Piazza del Duomo in Florence. Newspaper shoved at the mark serves as a disstraction and a shield hiding the theft.
as they chased their quarry. Indeed, when the cuttings were run through a joggers' odometer, they amounted to well over 300 miles. Mr. Arno was trailed by his petite wife who, for most of those miles, hauled a 30-pound battery belt. She also demanded frequent refueling at cappuccino bars.
"We used a large, professional video camera with a very long lens, which allowed us to film the thieves unnoticed from a distance," Arno explained. "That way, we were able to capture their set-ups and their actual thefts. With that in the can, we'd usually get bold and creep in to get close-ups with a hidden camera. At that point, it wouldn't matter much if our cover was blown.
"Then, whenever possible, we interviewed the victims on camera, who often didn't even yet realize they'd been ripped off.
"Sometimes the victims would become pretty angry, though," Arno sighed, "to learn that we stood by and videotaped the rip-off instead of trying to stop it before they lost their money and passports."
Mr. Arno's documentary will be ready later this year.