hackneyphotographer
_IMG6698
In three years living in Barcelona I personally witnessed around 100 crimes (bag snatching and pickpocketing) or the aftermaths (thieves running away with a bag or wallet or victims running after someone who’d nicked these).
Given the sheer number of incidences of pickpocketing in Barcelona, I prepared this decoy wallet with the aim of being stolen.
Disappointingly the wallet was not nicked, although I gave the ladrones ample opportunity, the surest ways to get robbed here; intentionally not paying attention to Barcelona’s three “Don’ts”: Carrying it in my unbuttoned back pocket, in the see-through unzipped mesh part of my knapsack, even going as far as putting it on the table while drinking wine and not looking at it.
The contents are a work in progress and I’m open to other suggestions of items to add to the wallet.
These currently include:
1.Two banknotes, 1,000,000,000,000 and 5,000,000 in currency from the former Yugoslavia.
2.A scarlet letter “T” for “thief
3.As the majority of the bag snatchers and pickpockets are from Morocco and Algiers (in addition to gypsies), a print-out in Arabic of these two sentences from the Koran:
As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in Power. Full of Wisdom.
فَمَنْ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِ وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
But if the thief repent after his crime, and amend his conduct, Allah turneth to him in forgiveness; for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
{أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ يُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
4.A check for £700 (towards a subscription to a beer magazine)
5.A few eucalyptus leaves (they might assume it’s a drug)
6.Fake passport number/name, paypal, bank account information with PIN numbers and a nonsense secret question
7.A 60s advert for a constipation medication
8.An artist’s work showing a face and an a**hole
Please do feel free to make any suggestions. I’ll be taking the wallet to naples in a few months, which I hear also has a lot of street crime.
_IMG6698
In three years living in Barcelona I personally witnessed around 100 crimes (bag snatching and pickpocketing) or the aftermaths (thieves running away with a bag or wallet or victims running after someone who’d nicked these).
Given the sheer number of incidences of pickpocketing in Barcelona, I prepared this decoy wallet with the aim of being stolen.
Disappointingly the wallet was not nicked, although I gave the ladrones ample opportunity, the surest ways to get robbed here; intentionally not paying attention to Barcelona’s three “Don’ts”: Carrying it in my unbuttoned back pocket, in the see-through unzipped mesh part of my knapsack, even going as far as putting it on the table while drinking wine and not looking at it.
The contents are a work in progress and I’m open to other suggestions of items to add to the wallet.
These currently include:
1.Two banknotes, 1,000,000,000,000 and 5,000,000 in currency from the former Yugoslavia.
2.A scarlet letter “T” for “thief
3.As the majority of the bag snatchers and pickpockets are from Morocco and Algiers (in addition to gypsies), a print-out in Arabic of these two sentences from the Koran:
As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in Power. Full of Wisdom.
فَمَنْ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِ وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
But if the thief repent after his crime, and amend his conduct, Allah turneth to him in forgiveness; for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
{أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ يُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
4.A check for £700 (towards a subscription to a beer magazine)
5.A few eucalyptus leaves (they might assume it’s a drug)
6.Fake passport number/name, paypal, bank account information with PIN numbers and a nonsense secret question
7.A 60s advert for a constipation medication
8.An artist’s work showing a face and an a**hole
Please do feel free to make any suggestions. I’ll be taking the wallet to naples in a few months, which I hear also has a lot of street crime.