Pickpocketing

Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time.

Pickpocketing skills are employed by some magicians as a form of entertainment, either by taking an item from a spectator or by returning it without them knowing they had lost it.

Borra [de], arguably the most famous stage pickpocket of all time, became the highest-paid European performer in circuses during the 1950s.

[5] Henri Kassagi, a French-Tunisian illusionist, acted as technical advisor on Robert Bresson's 1959 film Pickpocket and appeared as instructor and accomplice to the main character.

British entertainer James Freedman created the pickpocket sequences for the 2005 film Oliver Twist directed by Roman Polanski.

"[7][8] According to Thomas Blacke, an American illusionist who holds several world records, it has become more difficult nowadays to pickpocket both in the streets and on the stage because the general population wears less, or lighter, clothing.

Famous true-life historical pickpockets include the Irish prostitute Chicago May, who was profiled in books; Mary Frith, nicknamed Moll Cutpurse; the Gubbins band of highwaymen; and Cutting Ball, a notorious Elizabethan thief.

George Barrington's escapades, arrests, and trials, were widely chronicled in the late 18th-century London press.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw a significant number of men and women pickpockets, operating in public and/or private places and stealing different types of items.

[16] In most cases, these prostitutes would lay with men (who were frequently drunk), and take advantage of the situation to steal from these clients.

[16] The men who were prosecuted for picking pockets and who were under 20 years old were often children working in gangs, under the authority of an adult who trained them to steal.

[19] Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist provides a good example of how orphans were recruited and turned into street criminals.

[16] In the cases of prostitutes being accused of having pickpocketed male prosecutors, the jury's verdict was very often more favourable to the woman defendant than to the man prosecuting her.