Those pickpockets are TALENTED at what they do. We met an American man with his elderly mother. The young man was obviously disabled mentally and was as happy as he could be. He had been pickpocketed and they took everything except 2 bus tokens.
At Knightsbridge, I was with about 8 other flight attendants and were in a huge crowd - about a couple dozen non-natives. When I saw that brown arm snake around me, I grabbed my purse and heard AY YI YI I YI YI YI!!!!! and every single person in that crowd ran, scattered and disappeared.
Funny story!