Shanghai Stories #2

Sunday was a rainy day and when it rains here, being outside or going anywhere where there's a lot of people is a miserable experience.

Rain! The only thing that makes the Pudong skyline "short".

So I stayed in, did laundry and pre-packed for my flight back to HKG on Tuesday. Eventually, all the laundry was washed and dried and packed away and it was time to eat. Still raining out, I did my customary nighttime walk on The Bund and Nanjing lu. The "massage massage" touts were out in force as well as the grifters. I witnessed an attempted pickpocket attempt just past the Peace Hotel, where Nanjing lu is still a street.

Even wet, Nanjing lu still looks nice all lit up.

The scam goes like this: small guy follows the mark who is usually with his g/f (so there's no trouble). He is shadowed by a larger guy maybe 4 paces behind at his 4 o'clock. Small guy times his gait with the mark and slips his hand into the mark's pocket. Usually they seem to be after mobiles since you usually keep that in your jacket pocket as opposed to your wallet. How do I know all this? I happened to witness most of this up to the point where small guy went for the mark's jacket. Larger guy saw that I was witnessing this and strategically angled his umbrella so I couldn't see the rest.

It didn't work out in the end. Why? There were lots of standing puddles on the sidewalk and small guy didn't want to get wet. He rushed going for the mark's pocket, which alerted him to small guy's pickpocket attempt. Screaming and yelling ensued and both small and large guy took off.

Rule of story: keep your pockets zipped up.