Eiffel Tower closed amid workers' anger about pickpockets

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

PARIS (AP) — The Eiffel Tower closed to the public Friday as workers protested a rise in aggressive pickpockets around the Paris landmark that attracts thousands of visitors daily.

The walkout came a day after Paris authorities said crime against tourists in the French capital had dropped this year thanks to reinforced police presence and video surveillance.

The company that manages the tower said it did not open Friday because the staff was concerned about petty crime around the site and it is working with police to reach a solution. Crowds of tourists streamed around the monument, unable to reach its viewing towers. The tower is normally open every day of the year but sometimes closes briefly for bomb threats or strikes.

Workers at the Louvre staged a similar walkout in 2012, complaining of a rising problem of pickpockets haunting the famed Paris museum's vast galleries.

FULL story at link.


Tourists wander under the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Friday May 22, 2015. The Eiffel Tower is closed to the public because workers are protesting a recent rise in aggressive pickpockets. The Paris monument is normally open every day of the year and brings in thousands of visitors daily. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f88fc77c6a544e3e98df057d72b4333b/eiffel-tower-closed-amid-workers-anger-about-pickpockets

[Bluenorthwest]

1. I was pickpocketed there in '72. A month before that I had stayed on the same street in Wembley

that has the UXB today. Your posts are taking me down memory lane.....

[DFW]

2. The EU brought this upon themselves. It's everywhere now, not just the Tour Eiffel, not just France

Announcements warning of thieves in every train going though France, Belgium and Germany, in most major train stations, and it's open season on tourists in every city that has something worth seeing.

A friend of mine was with an employee who grew up in Romania in the Stephansdom in Vienna. She suddenly tugged at my friend's sleeve and said "we have to get out of here, NOW!" He asked why, of course. She said (in German) that the five or six people next to her were discussing in Romanian how they planned to systematically pick the pockets of as many people as possible inside the cathedral in the quickest manner and escape before they had been noticed. At least one of the thieves understood German, too, because as soon as she explained to her boss what was going on, they took off out of there at a run.

I just hired a native speaker of Romanian to help me out on some trips (work, not private) for that same reason.

"Die Geister die ich rief....." as Faust said.

[LittleGirl]

9. I've seen this in

Basel too. Signs that warn of pick pockets.

[DFW]

10. So did I

My friend in Geneva is still furious with his government for joining Schengen.

I have visited him at home "before" and "after." I don't blame him.

[MADem]

14. It is very different to travel in Europe today.

No more lines of cars idling at borders, waiting to cross. And populations are no longer homogenous as before.

I've done before and after as well. Of course, I no longer live there, so I can't speak to the associated issues that arise nowadays with any authority. I will say it's different.

[George II]

3. I was in Paris back in 2003 - before I left I was warned to watch out for pickpockets....

....the last night I was there some guy walked up to me to ask me a question. The next thing I knew, he had his hand in my pocket and arm around my chest. Some people chased him away, but he got off with 100 Euros. Thankfully he didn't get my wallet.

[displacedtexan]

4. The biggest problem is the "Gucci" Gangs.

I first encountered them at the Rome flea market in 1981, but I've seen them in London and Paris, as well since then. They travel in small groups of 2-4 or 5, dressed alike... but not too conspicuous--- mostly in Old Navy type clothes, with small plastic shopping bags, as if they've been out shopping and they're just out and about. When you stop to look at something, they sort of surround you, and one of them tries to unzip your shoulder bag. Or they bump into you and get touchy while they pretend to apologize. They're really bad on public transportation.

I recently saw a group of them at the farmers market in San Francisco. I asked the police if they knew about them, and they said they had just become aware of them.

These groups work like Fagin's children in Oliver Twist. Crossbody bags with zippers not facing out have helped me on many occasions. Wallets in the front pockets, Guys!

[mainer]

5. It's part of the "Paris experience."

I was pickpocketed on my first trip to Paris. Every friend who came to visit us in Paris also got pickpocketed. These thieves are amazingly skillful. The Metro is the place you're most vulnerable.

[liberal N proud]

6. Pickpockets and other schemers are rampant in Paris

Protect your wallet and passport if you go.

[Fournier]

7. Pickpockets tried to work me twice in 10 minutes on Barcelona subway.

Working in pairs, one dropped a bunch of coins and "credit cards" on the floor of the entrance to the train, while the other tried to unzip my backpack. I guess the coin/card drop was supposed to be a distraction. Then when I changed trains, an entirely different pair tried the exact same scam. Both times, I stiff-armed them and pushed them away, whereupon they faded away into the crowd on the train.

[aikoaiko]

8. Is that a dragon flying in the sky?

[lancer78]

11. Way I avoid pickpockets

Is I would sew a small pocket to the front side of my underwear. Had to look like Michael Jackson or Al Bundy when getting my money, but never have had any money pickpocketed.

[NCjack]

12. Signs and announcements to "beware of pickpockets" trigger a response

in many people to feel for their wallets. That shows the thieves the locations to attack. If you automatically feel for your wallet, your next step should be to pat all of your pockets and loudly say with emotion "I've been pickpocketed." When I travel, I use two "Big Skinny" wallets, each with one credit card and one-half of my walking around cash, and put them in my two front pockets. My main cash is in a chest money belt and my passport is in a neck pouch, both under my clothes. I have bumped and surrounded, but suffered no losses.

[cosmicone]

13. It is the family business of the Roma people

Last edited Fri May 22, 2015, 02:09 PM - Edit history (1)

When EU expanded, a lot of them travelled to Western Europe and started their trade honed for centuries. Even in NY, a lot of the pickpockets are Roma.

I was warned in Bucharest about them and I only travelled around with zippered pockets with buttoned flaps over the zippers.

Most of the Romas are now following legitimate occupations -- my lawyer being one of them even though he jokes saying he just figured out a legal way to pick people's pockets and is still true to the traditions.

[MADem]

15. A long, long time ago, in the city of Boston, there was a spate of purse snatching.

It was so bad that women were terrified and kept their purses over their arm and close to their sides.

Then, the thieves started using knives and razors to cut the straps, and they sometimes injured people.

Women started to carry a dummy purse for the thieves to grab, and put their real one in a shopping bag.

Eventually the thieves caught on to this, and would steal the shopping bag of a woman who appeared to be carrying a raggy-ass purse.

That's all foreground to this story....

My old auntie, long dead now, had a cat that lived for 25 years. It finally died, and she called this vet she knew and told him, and asked how she could dispose of the body--the vet asked if he could autopsy the cat, for his own general interest and so forth. She thought it would be nice if the cat went to advance this guy's knowledge, so she agreed, put the cat in a Filene's bag, and headed over to give him the dead pet. Lo and behold, the bag--with the hefty, purse-weight cat in it -- was grabbed.

We never heard a thing about it, the bag with the cat was never recovered (though a police report was filed--and the police did find something to laugh about in the circumstance) but I can imagine that the thief probably shit himself when he opened the bag and saw Dead Fluffy looking back at him!

[mnhtnbb]

16. My first trip to Paris--1983--I caught a pick pocket who had gotten my wallet out of my purse

We were walking on the street after having been to the Folies Bergeres. I was splashed--recent rain--on my
right and looked to my left to see a guy passing by with my wallet in his hand! I grabbed his arm and yelled
at him to drop it. He did! Everyone on the street stopped to stare. I picked up the wallet--he didn't run--
and checked my bag (on my left shoulder) for my passport (which was still there). It really surprised me that he didn't run.

In 2013 my husband and I were in Berlin when I caught a pickpocket with his hand reaching up underneath my
husband's jacket as we were climbing steps up from the U-bahn. He did not have his wallet in his back pocket (I have
always encouraged my husband and sons to put wallets in front pockets when traveling) but the guy sure was
hoping to find one. I yelled at him, too, and both he and his friend stopped. It really surprised me that in both
instances the pickpockets didn't run. They just stood there--and of course nothing happened to them--but the last time
in Berlin I was very loud and obnoxious about telling anyone who would listen to watch out for these thieves.

In 2014 I was waiting in the lobby of our hotel in Stockholm and listened to a fellow guest report to the desk clerk having
been robbed--from a back pack--of his wallet on a Sunday morning in the old town.