Dresden (dpa / sn) - Christmas markets, full buses, trains and shops: The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) Saxony warns against pickpockets. "After two Corona years with little or no events in Advent, it can be assumed that they will strike again," said a spokeswoman on Friday in Dresden. Large crowds at booths and crowds of people at train stations, in department stores and shopping centers offer thieves ideal opportunities to do so. They usually work as a team, scouting out potential victims, pursuing them and then leaving again quickly.
"They often use distraction maneuvers such as jostling, addressing, supposedly friendly gestures and touches or intentionally caused crowding," the LKA described their approach. One distracts the victim by soiling his clothes and then helping to clean them, "the second steals the loot and passes it on to a third party, who then disappears."
In the Corona period in the past two years, the number of pickpocketing fell from 2411 cases in 2019 to 1305 last year. In 2020 there were 1,575. Last year, pickpocketing was one of the crimes with the lowest clear-up rate at 9.7 percent. Compared to large cities such as Düsseldorf (395), Bremen (243), Essen (212) and Dortmund (205), however, 103 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants for all of Saxony, 48 cases in Dresden and 33 in Chemnitz are rather modest.
The LKA recommends only taking as much cash and cards into the fray as necessary, keeping valuables and bags closed and close to your body, being alert, and keeping your distance and watch out for pickpockets. "You can often recognize them by their searching look for prey."
