Learned some stuff
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Oh man, @Steve-Miller , that's awful.
Funny you should post about this. When I was waiting for my order at the Chinese restaurant on Sunday, a guy who was also waiting for his order initiated a conversation and seemed unusually chatty. First thing I thought was that he was trying to distract me while someone lifted something from the purse I had slung over my shoulder. Wasn't the case, and my friend who was with me was nearby and would have seen any attempt.
I often see people in the grocery store who have a wide-open purse in their shopping cart. They are several steps away picking out produce or taking a can off of a shelf, with their backs turned to the cart. More than once I've stopped and alerted them that there are regular thefts of purses from shopping carts. People always seem grateful for the heads up.
I only have crossbody purses. I zip all compartments and carry the purse in front of me with my hand resting on the top and holding the strap. Honed my approach after thirty years of working downtown and hearing my co-workers' stories about how the person in front of them going into a revolving door stopped suddenly, trapping them, while the accomplice behind lifted a wallet from the purse. More recently, I've done the one credit card in my sock when we've gone downtown for Mr wtg's medical appointments. I still carry a purse as a decoy but it has nothing of value in it.
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Also, if you're going to keep the wallet on you, at least once a year take a couple of minutes to photocopy everything you have in there - as in all likelihood you'll forget some things.
Ditto - for your house - not a bad idea to take the iphone and walk through the house recording everything. One of my nieces just had a home burglary. She kept all of her jewelry in two convenient to steal jewelry boxes - things from her grandmother and parents - irreplaceable. She also happened to have a more cash than one would normally have at home because she'd taken it on a trip. I won't say how much except that I have never carried that much cash on any trip. Of course, they took Coach purses and other high end portable items. Two weeks before a tree collapsed on her car - so she's on a roll for bad luck.
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Just now changing all of the payments that come directly from checking accounts. There are a lot of them and it’s going to take hours.
After that’s done, and a trip to the Apple Store to see if we can retrieve various things that didn’t transfer to the new phone (ITunes, mainly), we’re done.
Between the insurance deductible on the new phone and the cash that was in her wallet we’re out of pocket about $400.
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@Steve-Miller ugh, I'm so sorry! Yes it could have been worse, bu $400 and countless hours trying to deal with everything is just awful.
@kluurs that sounds awful!
@wtg the revolving door thing is one I've never heard of! Of course, I don't encounter many doors like that in my daily life. But still, I guess you can never be too vigilant.
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Montana definitely has its down sides--Arctic winters, wildfires, Trumpers--but this is one of the great things about living here. Leave your car unlocked and running, leave your purse wide open in your shopping cart while you go to the restroom, drop a $100 bill in the parking lot--nobody is going to steal it and the local classified will have an ad trying to locate you to get the $100 bill back to you. My husband once lost that much cash on a hike on a local trail, went back to look, and found it pinned to a nail on a trail sign. Hundreds of people had gone by and could have taken it, but didn't.
Having said that, I still conduct myself as if I live in NYC. My mother and grandmother grew up in NYC and instilled me with their precautions. I never carry a purse into a store. My credit card, ID, and a bit of cash are inside a zippered breast pocket of my coat. My purse is on the floor of the back seat of my car, with something thrown over it, and the door is locked.
I like that I live in such a good place, but I also don't want to be the victim of an exception.
Steve, I'm so sorry for what Sharon is going through. Most of the world is like this, unfortunately.
fear is the thief of dreams
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@ShiroKuro , it's not just revolving doors. My friend who was here last weekend had the same thing happen when she was walking down stairs from the plaza level down to the platform of her commuter train. The stairway narrowed as you got to the bottom. The person in front of her stopped suddenly and my friend did, too. A few seconds later they started moving and my friend followed and got on the train. She went to look for her monthly commuter pass and discovered her wallet missing.
Different version of the same (basic) maneuver.
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@wtg yikes! I wonder if having your purse cross-body style in the front is enough to prevent that...
I probably need to be much more careful, esp. when I'm somewhere where people are closer together.
I like that I live in such a good place, but I also don't want to be the victim of an exception.
that's the way to think about it!
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@ShiroKuro said in Learned some stuff:
@wtg yikes! I wonder if having your purse cross-body style in the front is enough to prevent that...
If you zip the purse shut, it greatly reduces the chances that a pickpocket can reach around you, unzip your purse, and take out your wallet or phone.
Mine has a longer strap, but I carry it in front of me like that. There are some damn good pickpockets who could get something out of a crossbody, but deterrence is the key here. They're far more likely to go after someone whose purse is gaping open on their back than someone who is clutching a closed bag. My friend had her purse/wallet stuffed in a backpack that wasn't zipped shut, so she was an especially easy target.
Of course there are those who cut the strap on the purse or simply slash it and let the contents drop out; I've heard of that happening to men who carry their wallets in their back pockets. Quick cut across the bottom of the pocket and as the victim walks the wallet falls out. Only way to prevent that is to have the purse under your clothing, or in the second case, carry the wallet in a front pocket, which may be effective but not particularly convenient.
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Found this article about preventing pickpocketing as I was looking for photos of a crossbody purse.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@pique said in Learned some stuff:
Montana definitely has its down sides--Arctic winters, wildfires, Trumpers--but this is one of the great things about living here. Leave your car unlocked and running, leave your purse wide open in your shopping cart while you go to the restroom, drop a $100 bill in the parking lot--nobody is going to steal it and the local classified will have an ad trying to locate you to get the $100 bill back to you. My husband once lost that much cash on a hike on a local trail, went back to look, and found it pinned to a nail on a trail sign. Hundreds of people had gone by and could have taken it, but didn't.
Having said that, I still conduct myself as if I live in NYC. My mother and grandmother grew up in NYC and instilled me with their precautions. I never carry a purse into a store. My credit card, ID, and a bit of cash are inside a zippered breast pocket of my coat. My purse is on the floor of the back seat of my car, with something thrown over it, and the door is locked.
I like that I live in such a good place, but I also don't want to be the victim of an exception.
Steve, I'm so sorry for what Sharon is going through. Most of the world is like this, unfortunately.
Not in Butte, Montana! Especially uptown. Lots of petty theft and vehicles stolen here, especially uptown.
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I am really sorry this happened to Sharon. I never leave my purse in my car - not even in the glove box. If we are going someplace I don’t want my purse, (like hiking), I wear a fanny pack and only pack what I need. Trailheads and fishing accesses (depending on how close they are to town or the interstate) sometimes draw the wrong sorts of people in to check out your stuff. Steve caught a guy trying the doors on his car over near Cardwell on the Jefferson River.
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@wtg said in Learned some stuff:
@ShiroKuro said in Learned some stuff:
@wtg yikes! I wonder if having your purse cross-body style in the front is enough to prevent that...
If you zip the purse shut, it greatly reduces the chances that a pickpocket can reach around you, unzip your purse, and take out your wallet or phone.
Mine has a longer strap, but I carry it in front of me like that. There are some damn good pickpockets who could get something out of a crossbody, but deterrence is the key here. They're far more likely to go after someone whose purse is gaping open on their back than someone who is clutching a closed bag. My friend had her purse/wallet stuffed in a backpack that wasn't zipped shut, so she was an especially easy target.
.My grandmother had her wallet chained to the inside of her purse
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It’s totally the drug problem. Our neighborhood hasn’t had issues that I know of (except for the house about 4 blocks away that looks like it might have been fire bombed, and one other that had a hole in the side and looks like a meth flop house
). But uptown, between the pre-release folks and the tweakers, if you leave something in your car and it’s unlocked, it will disappear. Our problem is partly due to being at the interesection of two interstates. -
@ShiroKuro said in Learned some stuff:
@Steve-Miller we all have Face ID activated on our phones, so that’s something at least.
Am I right in guessing that Sharon’s wallet and phone were taken from her purse? Where was her purse?
So, my son asks me if I really want the police, or whoever is holding me, to have access to my phone simply by holding it up to my face. I don't have facial recognition activated.
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@Piano-Dad said in Learned some stuff:
my son asks me if I really want the police, or whoever is holding me, to have access to my phone simply by holding it up to my face.
This was actually something I remember talking about when the iPhone update removed the fingerprint reader as a way to unlock the phone. I remember thinking that face ID could be easier to abuse. But then I started using it and these days I never give it a second thought.
BTW @Piano-Dad Do you use a passcode?
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Sorry about her theft. I was pickpocketed on a
tram in Prague by “passengers” who “helped” lift my heavy suitcase aboard while relieving goods from my waist pack. Only some $20 was taken, but also my passport, which meant extra hotel days, change of return flight, and hassle of getting an emergency passport. -
@RealPlayer said in Learned some stuff:
but also my passport
Ugh, losing my passport is always my worst nightmare when traveling!
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Steve, I'm so sorry to hear you are going through this - that sucks. In Sharon's honor, I made sure to zip my purse shut at all the stores I went to yesterday - it's a crossbody and usually in front of me, but just in case.....
And pique, until a few weeks ago I would have said that I lived in an area like that - we have accidentally left our front door unlocked for weeks on more than one occasion and we have never ever locked our cars (parked outside in our driveway). But about a month ago, I realized that all 3 of our cars had been rifled through overnight - they took the cash we had stashed in the car for drive-thru runs but nothing else (thankfully our wallets weren't in the cars) so they probably made off with $35 total. To get to our cars, they would have had to walk up our VERY LONG driveway (500+ ft) and stand next to our side porch opening and closing car doors. I had heard that others in town had gotten stuff swiped from their cars a few weeks earlier but never imagined someone would have the stones to come all the way up our driveway - you can't even see our house from the road so it would be hard to even know we had cars there. Plus we live in an area where most homeowners are armed and just dying for a reason to test out the stand your ground law so I dunno - I figure the person had to be either very dumb or very desperate.
Anyway, we lock our cars now and double check the house doors every night. The world, it's a changin'.
Good luck Steve getting it all straightened out.
