
Phoneless in Paris - ColinWright
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33731981
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slau
One of the offices at my previous job is situated on rue de Dunkerque, about
150m from the main Gare du Nord entrance. My boss and the CEO (who was in
Milan) were on the phone, while my boss, using the headphones, was walking
towards the metro station. My boss was monologuing about some issue in
production, went through the security gates, kept monologuing until he reached
one of the trains, and told the CEO that he was about to get on a train and
the communication would probably drop out. It's only then that he realised
that he was talking to himself. He searched through his pockets but only found
the end of his headphones cable, disconnected, and no phone to be found.

It slowly dawned on him that his phone had been taken just before he went
through the security gates.

About two weeks later, the exact same thing happened, only closer to the
office. His phone got stolen right from his pocket. He usually keeps his phone
either in the front pockets of his trousers, or the inside pocket of his
jacket. He lost 4 phones over the course of 6 months. His phones rarely reach
the one-year-old status.

The other end of the conversation was a bit more comical: The CEO was
listening to his COO, heard some commotion, then heard someone panting and
street noises, cars honking. He figured that my boss had been run-over; he
usually finishes that story by concluding that, in horror, he immediately
posted about the job opening on job boards.

~~~
VonGuard
Just got back from Paris in June, and Gar du Nord is definitely rife with
pickpocketers, but they are actually really easy to spot if you know what to
look for. They were casing my wife and I every time we went there for a train.

Right now, the big thing is to send in kids with a piece of paper, asking you
to sign it and give them a donation. The kids sometimes pretend to be deaf,
and they basically demand a minimum donation of 8 euros. Their piece of paper
is all crumpled and filthy, but the kids usually look like normal European
8-year-old girls, often blond and cleanly dressed.

However, somewhere behind these girls, probably 20 to 30 feet away, will be a
handler. The few we saw were always old women who looked like Eastern European
grandmothers, and were probably the "Roma" everyone likes to call out.

This handler floats behind the kids and watches where phones and wallets go
when they're placed back in pockets. She then drifts by if you engage the
kids. The kids are the distraction, she's the pickpocket.

Frankly, though, if you pay any attention at all to the areas around you at
Gare du Nord, or anywhere else in Europe, it's very easy to see this stuff
going down and be safe. We were warned a dozen times about theft in Europe
before our lengthy trip, but really, you just have to behave as you would in
Manhattan or in San Francisco.

Frankly, you can lose your phone just as quickly in the Mission if you're on a
busy bus and not paying attention.

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aikah
The guy was really really lucky, especially in Paris. I lost my wallet twice ,
but fortunately since I used to live in a small city (less than 100 000
inhabitants) I got it back.

But yeah, the subway or the train in Paris is absolutely not safe in general,
avoid it if you can, rent a car or a bike, you'll enjoy the city way more if
you are a tourist that way.

The Roma criminality certainly has to do with poverty, but I'm sorry they also
have a specific culture and raised into a specific environment that favor
criminal behavior. It's a disservice to dismiss it as "xenophobia" or
something else when these people are heavily despised everywhere they go in
Europe, and for obvious reasons. It feels like they don't even care about
themselves and they have no self-love. There is more than 400 Roma slums
around Paris, and when I say slum , I'm talking about the real deal, people
leaving in "cardboard houses" in the middle of garbage. I don't think it's
normal.

~~~
DanDanDanDan
"Roma criminality"... "they have no self-love"... Sorry, but this is
xenophobia, and Europeans are better than Americans at it. The systematic
exclusion of groups from the mainstream creates extra-legal behaviors (or
"culture", as you say) to make ends meet. Plus, Europeans love a scapegoat;
it's part of a long, illiberal tradition on the continent.

~~~
aikah
> Europeans are better than Americans at it

Oh please, Ok, let's talk about the racism against blacks in US before talking
about the alleged European xenophobia.

~~~
fit2rule
It never pays to generalize about a culture/race/society not ones own. Such
effort gains little more than bigotry.

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yardie
I've managed to avoid having any of my phones stolen since living in Paris. As
a prank a friend of mine nicked it out of my coat pocket and since then I
never keep anything valuable in them except winter gloves.

One of the scams pickpockets play is to try and distract you. I don't know a
lot of people so I avoid conversation with strangers on the street. though I
might engage in the bar.

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bsaul
Wouldn't another moral be that not all immigration waves bring the same kind
of people ? Immigrants from asia have, everywhere ( to my knowledge), brang
people that work hard, have children that do great at school, and only protest
to ask for more police force rather than less (true story from a recent
protest in the belleville district in Paris, because chineese (sometimes
illegal) immigrants were often attacked by north-africans that stole their
bags, knowing they wouldn't go see the police).

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scurvy
Why is this behavior tolerated across all of Europe? Seems like they run the
same scams in each country. Why don't the police run stings and arrest them?
Or is it because the police are also on vacation when the tourists come in
summer?

~~~
Qantourisc
Well in Belgium it's because they arrest them. The cops put down their
information at the station, and they are out 3 hours later. MAYBE later they
are summoned for trial, months later. But good luck by then.

