Thursday, November 06, 2008
Pickpockets - I finally seen the Xinjiang thieves in action last Saturday when I am walking towards the train station. Facing directing the Ah Yi (aunty) who was cycling in her bicycle with her handbag hanging by her hip near to the side of the road, it invited 2 Xinjiang thieves to sneak behind her. This one young chap 20+ sneak quietly behind her bicycle and went to start unzipping her handbag quietly. I was like wow, this act happening live in front of my eyes and wondering if I should give hint or what to the Ah Yi.
Another thought comes to me that if I hint in very obvious way, I might then be inviting myself for a bash by these 2 Xinjiang-ers and that from colleagues stories there might be some more ambushing in the background. Such hard act - to hint or keep quiet...
It didn't take long for a decision to happen. For the Ah Yi find something unusual and turn her head around (maybe it's me staring too long to the guy direction) and then started to ask "hey what you doing". Think she still haven't realised the whole situation yet. Seeing that the act kind of failed the Xinjiang-er like couldn't do much while the Ah Yi quickly cycle off. As for me I also quickly dash across the road seeing that the road is empty. In any case they might want to blame me if things failed I still have the traffic as a hurdle.
Thereafter I didn't turn my back to see as it might invite them to think further or what, so I continue to walk as usual for the next 100m till outside of KFC. There I stopped and pretend to wait for friend while scouting their image to see if they will still be lingering around. And obviously the answer is yes, they continued to prey for their next victims...sigh. Therafter I went off to meet my friend for lunch.
Xinjiang-ers nothing much good reputations about them throughout the cities of China. The local have marked them like this -> either they are satay stick sellers by the road (something decent) or they are pickpocket! Pickpocket wise can be as young as small boys of seven or eight years old. According to the locals, the police can't really do much about them. At most they will send them back when they are caught red-handed as there is a law protection against this "minority" group. Such halo protection, I wonder if it do more good or harm since their reputation has much been tarnish by pickpocketing...
Labels: China, Pickpocket, Shanghai, Xinjiang
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