Pickpocketed

Early this afternoon, I took a bus from the center back to my neighborhood. I paid for my ticket, sat down, put my little wallet deep inside the front pocket of my backpack on the seat next to me, and rode the bus until my stop. There weren’t too many people on the bus and I didn’t notice anything strange. Later, when I went to pay for something in the local grocery store, I couldn’t find the wallet. I couldn’t believe it had been stolen because the front pocket was zipped closed. But sure enough, a very clever and professional thief had unzipped the pocket, taken out the wallet, and zipped it back up – all without me noticing a thing.

Having just come from a family portrait job, I was carrying much more cash on me than I normally would have been. But luckily I hadn’t put that money in the wallet, but instead had stuffed it further inside the backpack in another pocket. But sadly my US driver’s license was in the wallet along with about $40 or so in cash.

I went looking to see if I could find the bus but didn’t have any luck. But I did report the incident to a guy working at the bus terminal. I also ran into a transit police office and he called a regular police officer and I gave a report to them.

I’ve been hearing more stories of crime here lately. And they always say that from now until Oct/Nov it’s the worst because it’s the low season and people become more and more desperate for money. I hope it’s not a sign of change here because normally I feel so safe walking around here. I don’t really let my guard down completely (20 years of living in the City will do that, especially back when it was truly dangerous) but I also rarely look over my shoulder.

I still can’t believe the thief was able to do what he did. It’s actually pretty impressive.