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The 'baby pickpockets' of Venice: How gangs have recruited an army of children to prey on tourists in packed streets of Italian holiday hotspot

The 'baby pickpockets' of Venice: How gangs have recruited an army of children to prey on tourists in packed streets of Italian holiday hotspot

Daily Mail​3 days ago
Venetian gangs are grooming children to work as pickpockets as they seek to prevent police crackdowns from eating into their profits, officials and activists have warned.
Venice, as one of Italy 's top tourist attractions, has long been a hotspot for criminal activity targeting unsuspecting holidaymakers.
The scourge has led furious residents to form their own associations to publicise the identities of those caught in the act and work as volunteer informants for police.
A slew of videos published on social media shows alleged pickpockets - often teenage girls and in some cases pregnant women - attempting to cover their faces as enraged citizens yell to draw attention to them.
Officials warn that legal loopholes already allow adult pickpockets, particularly women, to operate with little concern for law enforcement.
Deputy Chief of the local police, Gianni Franzoi, told Secolo d'Italia: 'There are now more female pickpockets, drawn to the city by a bubble of legal impunity...
'(The law) stipulates, in addition to a formal complaint, the injured parties' presence at the hearing,' he said, explaining that in order for a pickpocket to be convicted, the victim must also attend the court date.
'The victims are mostly foreigners, and they hardly ever come to the hearing. So, there are no trials and no convictions.'
But even amid an increased police presence and efforts by citizen activists to catch opportunists, those under the age of 14 cannot bear criminal responsibility. Gangs are therefore stepping up efforts to recruit 'baby borseggiatori' - or baby pickpockets - into their ranks.
Venetian gangs are grooming children to work as pickpockets as they seek to prevent police crackdowns from eating into their profits, officials and activists have warned
The Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has called for the existing legal framework to be adapted to give police and courts more powers to prosecute pickpockets.
'We cannot resign ourselves to the normalisation of crimes that damage people's lives and the city's image on a daily basis,' Brugnaro declared last week.
'We need urgent corrective measures. The government has to listen to local communities and guarantee urban security.'
Meanwhile, Monica Poli, spokesperson for the association Cittadini Non Distratti (Undistracted Citizens), denounced the involvement of children in criminal activities.
'The problem is that there are many minors under 13, including girls (who are pickpockets).
'What drives us forward is above all to defend the most vulnerable groups, namely the elderly and disabled, who are the preferred victims of these increasingly violent pickpockets, and we do so out of civic duty.'
Poli has garnered significant notoriety on social media, particularly on TikTok, where she and her fellow citizen activists routinely post videos of suspected pickpockets.
Her catchphrase 'Attenzione, borseggiatori!' (Attention, pickpockets!) went viral in 2023 and has been remixed into dance tracks and used to mock everyday scenarios, like animals trying to nibble their owners' food.
The newfound social media fame helped to shine a light on the work Poli and her fellow volunteers, who first began combing the streets for pickpockets some three decades ago, have done.
Poli says that her group aims to protect tourists and raise awareness about pickpocketing in Venice, claiming her group protects US and UK tourists from being targeted.
'I have been part of a group of disturbance against pickpockets for 30 years - together with 40 other people,' she told Newsweek shortly after erupting to social media stardom.
'People are pickpocketed for their American or English passport, then to return to their country they have to go to the embassy in [...] Rome.'
'This incurs additional expenses for them, so it is better to prevent this by warning tourists of the problem.'
Poli claims she has never been asked to stop by police, but runs a physical risk for her actions, adding she was once attacked by a group of women who fell foul of her vigilantism.
In the meantime, deputy police chief Franzoi laments that the rate of pickpocketing - which skyrocketed after the return of tourists following the lifting of pandemic restrictions - looks set to continue on its upward trajectory.
'This year we've intercepted 100 pickpockets, including several minors,' he told Italian media.
'Another interesting statistic is the number of wallets found in St. Mark's Square: we'll reach 900 in 2025.'
Officials point out that without a change in legislation, citizen activist groups and individual victims will continue to carry out vigilante justice.
In some cases, such situations have led to violent assaults, some of which are perpetrated against innocent bystanders mistaken for thieves.
Last week, a 60-year-old German tourist was beaten by a group of angry citizens and holidaymakers who had reacted to warnings that a Spanish family had just fallen foul of pickpocketing.
The Spaniard in question grabbed hold of the ageing German and pushed him against the wall, before others rushed in to surround him.
He was ultimately pushed and struck several times as the crowd forced him to empty his pockets and open his bag before police arrived.
'I arrived on vacation in Venice three days ago,' he told police officers, according to Venezia Today. 'I never expected something like this. I was attacked, beaten, and called a thief. Now I want to file a complaint against those who attacked me.'
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How a junior trader paid for the banking crisis – while the big bosses never joined him in the dock
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‘I stole £1.2m in a 40-minute call — then blew it all in Harrods'
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Fraud accounts for 41 per cent of all reported crime in the UK and as much as £1.17 billion was stolen by scammers last year, according to the trade body UK Finance. This makes it the most common type of crime — and I am one of the world's leading experts on it. Why? Because I used to be a prolific fraudster and spent more than 25 years stealing money and services worth many millions of pounds. Some of my frauds were theatrically audacious. I once spent seven months living free of charge in five-star hotels in central London, posing as the 13th Duke of Marlborough and demanding that invoices were sent to Blenheim Palace. Other frauds were immensely cruel and damaging, fleecing some of my victims of their life savings and causing them to become seriously unwell. The harm I caused still haunts me. • Fake duke jailed for fooling five star hotels with Fawlty Towers con trick I was in prison three times over 17 years — for a total of eight years, each spell longer than the last. 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So, if you are in any way worried that I might not genuinely be calling from the bank, we can end this call now and I can arrange an appointment for you to visit the branch with your usual desktop computer so we can carry out the tests in person.' Sally paused. 'OK I'm happy to continue with this and I trust you. I've verified the number you're calling from, I've checked your name online … and you can't possibly be a fraudster because what scammer in his right mind would give me the opportunity to end the call. We're always told that fraudsters will rush us and you haven't done that either. So yeah, let's get these tests done but please hurry up as otherwise I'll have to put the kids in after-school club and that's so bloody expensive.' Over the next 20 minutes I instructed Sally to make transfers to what I told her were 'randomly generated test accounts'. Over and over again, until every single penny had left the company bank account. 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The scheme has incentivised banks to develop far better transaction monitoring technology — for example, banks can tell how we are holding our phones when we are making payments in case it is at a different angle to usual. They can tell if a transaction is taking longer than normal, or if a phone call is taking place at the same time, which would indicate that the customer was being instructed by a third party to make the payment. But despite this, fraudulent payments continue to be made, and victims continue to report staggering losses. Fraudsters won't give up, they will keep coming up with new ways to get their hands on your money. Perhaps it is time to abandon the faster payment systems altogether and revert to a four-day clearance cycle — banks are at a serious time disadvantage when payments clear within seconds.

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