The Little Blue Book of Pickpocketing [1 ed.]

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The little Blue Book of PICKPOCKETING By James Harrison

Foreward Hey There! I wanna say thanks for buying this book.

You are on the first steps to learning how someone picks a pocket. Now will this book be the end all, be all book on Pickpocketing? No, but its goal is to help you with the first steps into learning an amazing skill that very few people can do.

Let me be clear about two things though, first, I am in no way giving you this information to have a wave of pickpocketing hit the streets, instead, I hope, that this information will inform you of whats capable. Separating fact and fiction, so the ideas from Hollywood do not cloud your mind. (If you don’t believe me, watch any pickpocket movie, con man movie or Tv series or even the Now you see me series) And second, I wanted to get this information into your hands as quickly as possible, so the quality isn’t where I would like it to be. In the future, I will be expanding on this booklet and making sure that spelling mistakes are taken care of. But I wanted to make sure this information got into your hands, which is more important in my mind.

HERE IS THE WARNING! DO NOT PICK PEOPLE’S POCKETS! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH THIS INFORMATION. THIS IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!!

So practice good habits, use your powers for good and I’ll be happy to answer questions.

Welcome to an interesting new world of looking at things.

How to start

You can start by having a jacket, either blazer or a spring or fall number, and hang it off a chair.

You can then have the chair on top of a coffee table, or box to simulate the height in which you want to practice, or leave it on the floor and practice reaching into a jacket that someone has draped on the back of a chair.

If you want to step up you game, you can use some Screw Eyes, a hanger and some string. That way you can adjust the height of the jacket to ‘borrow’ from. Or you can go full DIY and build yourself a dummy to practice on.

Go to your Hardware store and pick up some ABS pipe. Here is a list of what I’ve used. For my dummy. 8 - 90 degree elbows in 1 1/2” pipe 2 - 45 degree elbows in 1 1/2” pipe 3 - 1/12” tee pipe 1 - 4 way 1 1/2” tee 8 foot length of abs pipe

Measure out the legs, arms and body of your dummy, make your cuts with an abs saw and push them together. Glue the legs and the torso together, but leave the shoulder of the dummy glueless. You want to be able to move them up and down for certain techniques you will want to practice, instead of learning in the moment.

Once you have the skeleton, you can hang shirts, shorts, pants, jackets, back packs, fanny packs or what ever you want to practice on without the worry of bothering your friends and family to stand still for hours on end.

If you have the money, you can purchase a articulated artist dummy. They are about 5 feet tall and every body part can move, but I found it unnecessary to purchase a $500 dummy, when for less than 30 bucks you can make an ABS dummy at home and save yourself a lot of money that can buy you a 3D printer instead.

Working from the outside in.

Just like the movie ‘The Proffesional’, you want to practice furthest away from the body until you get better. So the easiest ones to start with are the jacket’s outside side pockets.

These hang away from the body when the jacket is open. Which in turn makes it less likely to be felt when something is being pulled from the pocket.

It helps, if you can see exactly what is in the pocket first. You do not want to reach into a pocket without knowing whats inside. The results could be harmful or embarrassing.

Now usually, the most typical items that will be found in these pockets are quite common and usually, will not be the most dangerous.

The most common items I have run across in these pockets are:

Wallets Cellphones Cigarette or Gum packs Lighter Keys Loose papers Headphones (the in the ear kind, not the wrap over the head kind) Items that hang around ones neck and got in the way of the wearer (Name tags, ID tags, etc.)

So as you can see, quite a lot is found in these pockets, which will also help with loading something in these pockets as well (more on that later)

So to start, you will have to get in someone else’s ‘zone’. Usually on their left (there are so many people who are right handed and even left handed people will put things in pockets like right handed people, so your best thing to do is practice stealing like they are right handed)

You are going to ask them to hold their hand open and direct them where you want them to hold their hand by grabbing their wrist and placing it where you feel the most comfortable for you to reach in the pocket of the jacket (or hoodie, sweater, blazer, etc.)

This will pull the jacket away from the body and allow you to reach in the pocket to pull the contents out.

The fingers you will want to practice with are the first and second finger. Using your thumb is too thick to fit in a pocket, while the first two fingers are the longest and will reach quite far into a pocket.

Once you have clamped down on the item, just like Jenga, you will want to feel, if it will come loose from the pocket, so you can pull it out. If it is too snug, your subject will feel it and you will be questioned as to what you are doing.

Since I perform a great deal, usually telling them exactly what I am doing will be enough of an answer for them to let you get a pass, but they will be more on caution mode and it will be harder to borrow from them again (You will be able to, just not immediately after they caught you)

Once you feel that the item is loose, you will pull it out

of the pocket and you will want to ditch the item.

I will cover where to get rid of the item in question later in the book.

Inside pants pockets

Now the nice thing about these pockets is, you have already practiced standing beside someone to give them instruction to distract them. The only difference is where the pocket is.

Now you will want to avoid Jean pockets, mainly because they tend to be a little tight. (You can steal from them, but your best bet is to literally ask them to take the item in question out of the pocket and put it in a pocket you can borrow from)

Slacks have more room for you to reach in and for items to come out. Now as you reach in and clamp down on the item, you are going to one thing to help assist the lift and distract the mark from feeling the item from coming out of the pocket.

When you start to pull, with your left hand, you are going to touch the marks leg, asking them to move that leg back, Since too many things are happening, the brain will be overloaded. (For a more detailed discussion on overloading the brain, you should watch ‘The art of misdirection’ by Apollo Robbins on YouTube. Such many great jewels of info that can be found on that video.)

Now that they are distracted, when the leg moves back, you can pull the item out of the pocket. But you can also use your left hand to push their leg back as well, but at the same time, push the item in the pocket up higher to be able to reach it with the other hand, thereby making the steal even easier.

Do you need to?

This is a pocket that makes or breaks pickpockets. Many make a living by just lifting from the outside pockets, avoiding these pockets all together. There is nothing wrong with that. It is a hard pocket to lift from. If you can avoid it, its not the end of the world, but if you are scared to reach in this pocket, then the next pocket will give you nightmares.

Back Pockets!!!

The holy grail! Pulling a wallet out of a back pocket has crossed everyone’s mind at one point or another. Now its time to act! Let's begin…

Again, we find ourselves in standard side position, arm up and out of the way. Now you will want to put your right hand in a hip resting position on their hip. The palm will be resting on their belt region, the fingers will be resting on the item in the pocket, (either a wallet, cell phone or loose paper. These tend to be the most common)

Now with cell phones and loose papers, you are going to tap their leg and ask them to move their leg forward, which will give you the tactile cover of pulling the time out of the pocket.

But wallets need more help.

Instead of using my left hand to push their leg back, which will not give me the sufficient distraction I need. I tend to use this technique.

Taking from magicians, using a larger motion to cover a smaller one, I bump their left foot back with my left foot. This motion will bring their mind directly to their foot. Once they look down, I lift the item out of the back pocket.

Now some wallets will flare out, making it easy to get caught on the way out.

To solve this, you will use your thumb as well, in an almost ’I got your nose’ position, but with your fingers extended. Your fingers will stop the wallet from flaring out so much and catching on the corners of the pocket.

This same technique will be used for taking a wallet from an inside jacket pocket as well…

Speak of the devil

Inside jacket pockets are considered safer to hide items in, easier to retrieve and you should feel if something comes out of those pockets right?… Right?

Let's begin

Now you are going to change your stance. From a standard side position, to a straight on position. This position is a very useful one, it allows you to access many jacket pockets, including the side pockets (Discussed earlier in the book) but the breast pocket and inside pockets of the jacket as well. To do so will require you to open the jacket, so if you are not a toucher, you are either going to have to learn, or stick with the outside pockets, the ones away from the body.

When you open the jacket, you are going to open them to pull the pockets away from the body, allowing you to reach inside.

The inside pockets can usually be reached from where you have grabbed the jacket from (about chest height, usually a couple inches above the button of the jacket), but if your fingers are a little short, you can solve this issue by folding the collar on itself, there by bringing the pocket closer to your grasping fingers.

Now you don’t want to pull any item out of this pocket while your mark is staring at your hand in the pocket, so you will have to pull their attention away from that pocket. I will leave this detail up to your imagination. A usual ploy, is to ‘reveal’ an item you found from another pocket you stole from, and while they will follow the item and probably reach for the item, that will allow you to reach in and take the item you really wanted.

Now if this is too bold for you, we can instead use the jacket for cover, with this technique. You pull the item out of the pocket, comment on it, start to put it back and close the jacket, but

as you do, you do not let go of the item. You instead have loosened it to slide out of the pocket, but using the jacket as cover, pull the item out, sliding it across their chest, right under their nose. You will direct their attention to something that you will use to point at, which will feel awkward at first, but will provide cover if they decide to look down for some reason.

Put and take

Now I prefer to use a simple technique that many a performing pickpocket has used on stage and strolling at cocktail events. It allows you to ‘lift’ almost any item that you are wanting to borrow, as long as you are looking to give it back in a short amount of time.

Its called the put and take. This technique is perfect for something that you find difficult to pull out of someone's pocket.

To demonstrate, we will use two examples, one with the pants and one with the jacket.

With the pants:

Typically, this will be the wallet, but in the side pockets, not the back. (But you can use this to take the wallet out of the back pocket and put into the side pocket.)

This can also take a cell phone.

To start, you ask your mark to take out the item in question. After they hand it to you, you look at it, make a comment about how it isn’t the right thing to use, and put it back yourself.

But instead of leaving it, you just take the item right out.

You do have to direct their attention to something that will seem far more important (I find an expensive watch, or another item of interest that is someone else on their person) and while they are worried about said distraction, you slip out the wallet (Cell phone, ID tag, etc.) out of the pocket.

The advantage of this is, the path has been made for the item to come out of the pocket, as you made it yourself.

Please don't over look this as an amateur technique. You would be surprised how effective this works.

Dummy items

Now, normally pickpocketing is the height of improvisation. Using what is at hand to distract, retrieve and extract. But if you are given some time to prepare, some dummy items can go a long way.

Dummy wallet

This is just a wallet you can use to switch for their wallet to put back in their pocket. Now an actual wallet would be ideal, but a newspaper folded up several times, cut to length and taped to stop it from unfolding will do the trick. If you have a wallet that is the same colour, then you can use the put and take technique, pausing at the moment when you have taken the item from them to examine, as them to stand still and while you stand a little behind, you switch the wallet behind your back and put their wallet in their back pocket. ID tags - Super simple to switch in hand with almost any plastic card. Take the card, lay it on top of the ID card in your hand, but a little closer to you in the

hand, then pull up the dummy tag from underneath the real tag, showing the back of the card, (Usually displaying the magnetic strip, not the important part, with the actual ID) and put it back in the pocket you found it.

As you pat the item in the pocket to show it is there, you pocket the real card yourself.

Fake Phones - Oh man, love this. How many people do you know with a phone without a phone case? Almost no one!

I barely know anyone brave enough to go without a case.

With this knowledge, you can take advantage of it by getting a couple of phone cases (Otter box tends to be quite popular) and you are ready to switch them

Ask for their phone, pick it up off the table, or jokingly grab it from them and fake tossing it. Whatever gets it in you hands.

Now for a BOLD switch (so bold I even put bold in bold italics!!)

You put their phone in the pocket you have the dummy case in. When they give you the stink eye, let go of their phone and pull out the dummy case,

without showing nothing inside. Put it back in their pocket, on the pile of stuff you found it, or drop it in the trash and walk away.

Once they realize its been switched, you have beaten said feet and gotten out of eye sight.

Put pocketing At first glance one might think that this part of the skill set is a waste of time. I want to take things from people, not give them stuff…

Well, hang on. Let's not be so quick to think its not worth your time. We can use this reverse skill to set up some interesting scenarios.

For example: The simplest is loading something metallic on someone else to cause a distraction.

Ball bearings are small, fit in most pockets and set off so many metal detectors, which will stall, distract and slow down a subject.

Also, what if you need to get the item in question back to the subject without their knowledge? Getting a password is fine, but if they find out its missing, they will change it and all that effort will be a waste.

But if you can get it back in their pockets, then that information will still be valuable.

Even better, dropping a cell phone in someone else's pocket, especially if someone thinks you’ve taken it, is the perfect distraction.

A watch steal (metal Rolex style)

While explaining that you couldn’t steal this watch because it is too hard, you slide it off their wrist without them noticing and hand it right back.

Background: I was always impressed by pickpockets that could steal something with out using magic as a cover. Then I watched Borra entertain Scotland Yard. While watching, I noticed him, slide of a Rolex style watch with out cover or props as distraction. Just his words and body position. I never found this technique in books or video. Just a demonstration of him doing it. I reverse engineered as best I could and came up with this technique. It may not be the same, but I don’t want this technique to fall to the way side, as it is too good to be forgotten.

Method: There is going to be some body positioning required to achieve this. If you have ever done anything like dance or martial arts, you should find this quite familiar, if not, it won’t be impossible. (But it helps)

Once you notice the watch you are looking for, you begin. Usually, I have already stolen and given back a watch with a leather strap, or the new smart watches. This helps set up the premise.

“That wasn't that hard, just a bit of practice, but your watch sir, impossible” Gently and slowly, grab and lift his wrist up to display the watch in question. First by showing the face, then by rotating the wrist away from you so the bottom of the band is facing you. (If you are holding their wrist up, with the fingers on top of their wrist, thumb down, you will rotate your wrist away from you, not towards. If you do, you will hurt your wrist and look like you are attempting a wrist lock) Use your left hands open fingers, palm out to point to the locking mechanism of the band. (Situation check: this moment allows you to figure out if you want to continue with the trick or not. Most bands now a days have simple push buttons to open

the lock, makes life so simple. But if you run into an older one, with the safety band, it isn’t the end of the world, but it may need some extra strength to open. Which you may want to avoid.)

When you rotate the watch back over to show the face, you will mention the brand. This is misdirection. What you are doing is moving the watch safety switch right into your opposite hand, allowing you to activate the switch and open the band. You will hold a little tighter with your right hand, keeping the watch in position, even though it is loose. (You don’t want them to know you released the safety) Now with your right and left hand, you will open the bottom of the watch out and begin to lower their hand, as you do, you will bring your hands down faster, that way you will slide their watch off the wrist. All the while saying

“Now all of this has been misdirection to get your phone, is it in your jacket or back pocket?”

There isn’t too much in the way of subtle technique with this one, its more of a ‘you have to do it’ to see what I mean.

This is just the beginning

This booklet is a starting point, gathering information on this subject is difficult. I believe I have an extensive collection of written material on the subject. But it doesn't even fill a side table, let alone a bookcase shelf. If I can suggest something, consider purchasing the video of pickpocketing as well as this booklet. The combination of the two will be a great way to begin your journey.

Once again, I write a second warning. I am in no way responsible with what you do with this information. This is for informational purposes only.

Use your powers for good.

Because if you don’t, there will be a forced roommate provided by the government if and when you get caught.

So instead, use it for fun and educational purposes instead.

Speak soon