The videographer, a six-foot-five-inch-tall lanky Swede, is himself a pickpocket, though a legitimate one. Bob Arno, who has been picking pockets for over 35 years on stages the world over, knew exactly what to look for when he hit the tourist-filled streets.

"They usually work in teams," he said in a telephone interview last week, "consisting of very specific players. The main 租ip,' the one who does the dirty work, is almost always a woman, often young, and usually pregnant or carrying an infant in a sling. She'll have a youngster with her as well, who'll serve as spotter and hand-off."
[ See The Serious Side of Stealing, Pg A4]

There was nothing slick about it, just very fast and singularly focused on my 30-year-old Rolex. Without finesse, it was merely a crude attempt to break the metal strap. What these amateurs didn't know was that they had selected a mark who had himself lifted in excess of 50,000 watches in his career of being an honest crook.