One of the trades seems to be "house robbery". Count on it when the carnival comes to town. That doesn't mean all the folks in the carnival do that ~ just that some do.
I once watched as a group of young gypsy people did their "shopping" at a local Giant grocery store. The old folks were having coffee down at the Starbucks because a thunderstorm had shut down the carnival.
They ended up paying me alms ~ pulled my wallet out of my pocket, removed all the threads, and placed a brand new $1 bill folded up in a laundry ticket I had.
I was shown several ways to steal whole hams, jars of caviar, and so forth. Some of the young women asked me in Roma if I were a Gypsy, and I told them no ~ which didn't seem to satisfy them at all! (ROTFLMAO).
Here's the deal ~ in America Gypsies are much more diverse and racially mixed group than in the Old World. Numerous people of all kinds have managed to join up with them.
Further, there are four large peripatetic groups in America. The Gypsies are but one of those groups. The others are American Indians, Irish Travelers, and Sa'ami (and probably other Northwest Eur/Asian tribal folk).
Way back in the 1850s the US Government convened the American Indians at Chicago and another location further South for the purpose of paying them for their land.
The Indians then left those places and removed to Oklahoma.
Guess who else was there in Chicago at the time? Anyway, they followed the Indians. The Sa'ami had already intermarried extensively with the Pennsylvania tribes (having been in America since the 1600s), and many mixed Sa'ami/Indian folks went to OK.
Although I can't begin to track it all down, you do sometimes find an individual like Bill Clinton who has known roots among the Sa'ami (through the Church of the First Born), the Irish Travelers (try to find his Rileys in Ireland ~ they're all over the place ~ on the road!), the Roma (back through the Blythes to Billy Blythe, Kind of the Gypsies), and, according to his mother, a Cherokee here or there.
I suspect things are even more complex than that. But when the carnivals come around here in the Spring, the local news tells us that the house robberies start, the elderly get fleeced, the pigeon drop is practiced, and the Apostolic Charismatic Church of the First Born in the Fullness of Time, Teaching Christ's Commandments, Army Cross Training leaves it's brochures in the restrooms at Wal-Mart (possibly in memory and honor of their patron saint, Sam Walton).
Life can be good.
"Gypsies=thieves, liars, con artists, filthy, ugly
They will still your money, your property, they'll break into your house and, usually, they do not speak well the language of the country they happen to live in (plunder)."
Oh, PLEASE, not that old hat again! I know many Gypsies, and I also know many non-Gypsies, and I have to say that of the two, the Romanies are by far the most honest, kind-hearted and well-mannered people I have come across. It's certainly not the Romany kids hanging on street corners smoking weed, drinking vodka and mugging people of an evening in my town. The Romany kids are at home with their families, helping their parents and looking after younger children. It's the Gypsy kids who hold shop doors open for old ladies, instead screaming obscenities, or even mugging them, like so many non-Gypsy kids do.
Please don't pander to racist sterotypes - it's terribly ignorant, frustrating for those of us intelligent enough to see through them, and incredibly hurtful for the innocent people who have to put up with racist abuse (including attacks) on a daily basis.