Hi guys.

This is a rant, I need to let off a little steam I consider all members of this forum as friends and right now I could do with a few friends.

Story:
Yesterday I took my parents and my two year old daughter into Paris via the metro. I had business to do with the British Consulate so I left my parents and daughter at Le Jardin Tuileries in front of the Louvre. Everything went well we met for lunch, it was sunny great day to be out.
After lunch i had to return to work so I escorted my family through the maze that is Paris metro to Chatelet station, where they were to go South and me North. My daughter was tired so she was put in a pushchair, we didn't want to take the stairs to the platform so we waited for a small lift to take us down. Just as we got into the lift two person unknown forced their way into any already crowded lift, my parents don't speak any French and one of these gentlemen tried to push the pushchair further into the lift than it would go, in an attempt to get more room. This was a smoke screen for his partner to lift my phone and my wallet. The lift gave no signs of moving so the two guys backed out and just as the doors were about to close snatched my briefcase. The lift started down and by the time it stopped the two guys were already gone.
Thankfully none of my family were hurt in this incident, just one of the harsh realities of living in a big city. So to my fellow forumites and urbanites, keep your kit ON YOU, in several pockets, as my briefcase contained alot of my kit, Doug's PSK and the RSK to name but two items. These as well as papers, credit cards can be replaced and will be. But there will be an added ingredient of increased vigilance, not that it was lacking before, but now it will be very finely tuned.

Story Ends.

Rant off.

Thanks guys for letting me get that off my chest. This may not be right forum for this kind of rant but I just wanted to share a bad experience and maybe help someone here avoid the same fate.

You have got it right ... unfortunatly...
Sorry for this mishap...

Stokie,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I'm glad that nobody was physically harmed. Hang in there.

I'm curious, what is the rule on self defence in France?

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

No rules ....
Be the first to hit, below the belt if possible, and run ........ <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Nah, just kidding ...
OTOH .... ??? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

When dealing with Romany, you can tell by the smell(and this is not a racial slur, I have smelled it myself), but there is nothing you can really do when you are surrounded by several in a situation like that.

I hope that they hurt themselves on something in your kit.

Rena

??huh?? I didn't see anything in Stokie's original post about the 2 thieves being Roma....

Anyway, the buses in NYC sometimes have announcements around Christmas-time, about how one thief will "crowd" or "jostle" people at the door to enable his/her partner to pick the target's pockets -- another trick is for one of the pair to "accidentally" spill coffee or ketchup on the target's clothing and for the other to "notice" the problem and pick pockets while he/she is cleaning the mess off the target.

Any way it happens, though, it stinks.