Posted on 08/26/2025 9:18:07 AM PDT by lowbridge
Wild video shows a US tourist yanking a suspected pickpocket by the ponytail after the teenager allegedly stole her purse and passport while on vacation in Venice.
Footage of the dramatic incident, which took place last Thursday, shows the furious woman gripping the teen girl by the hair in front of a crowd of onlookers in the world-famous Italian city.
The mom of eight was able to track down her stolen purse by using the “Find My Friends” feature on her AirPods, which were inside it, according to her daughter, Karis McElroy, who shared the original video of the confrontation on TikTok.
Karis’ mom was on vacation in Venice with her stepdad when they were crowded by a group of girls on a narrow bridge, and soon realized that her backpack had been unzipped and her purse containing her credit cards, cash and passport was missing, along with a metal water bottle.
“Her and my stepdad immediately started tracking her purse through her AirPods on Find My Friends, and they were able to track it down back to those three girls,” Karis said in a subsequent video.
“So she goes and chases them down, and she grabs one of the girls by her ponytail and does not let go. Two of the girls stay, one of the girls runs away with my mom’s purse,” she went on.
“She said she didn’t care about any of the other stuff in the bag, but she just at least wanted her passport so she could get home,” she said.
The Airbnb host told Karis’ mom that the trio were a well-known group of pickpockets in Venice and stood with her while they waited for the cops to apprehend the teenagers.
All the while, the girl being held by the ponytail was screaming
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Gypsies aren’t Romanian.
They originate from Northern India.
That’s the deal, mostly everywhere. They are “children” so they just get away with it. Arrest records are sealed for minors.
Might catch heat, but who is so self-absorbed they can’t feel a backpack being unzipped and items removed?
Fair point, but these people are good at what they do.
Love it!
Some shops require seeing the actual passport.
US Passports are now available with a passport card, a credit card sized version of your passport. We’ll be in Italy next week, and will carry the card while the passport is locked up in the hotel’s safe.
Guess what. Italian law requires foreign visitors to carry their passports at all times.
Yes!
That is what I did both times while in Italy. Took my chances with breaking the law.
Yes.
There are all sorts of helpful websites with advice like this for travelers.
That fan the girl is holding is to shield your eyes and distract you from what her other hand or friend is doing. Gypsies are masters of that. Those girls probably had a handler nearby watching them.
I have travelled to almost every country in Europe and dozens in Asia. Only time I not needed to carry passport was when my cruise ship stopped in a port. Every passenger on cruise ship is already vetted for citizenship and therefore passengers can enter the country without needing to show passport. To get back on ship we have to have the cruise card . Every airport requires passport to enter the country.
It really comes down to know before you go. Having a cell phone photo may help expedite a passport replacement if the cell phone isn't ripped off or lost as well. If you are staying at some low cost hotel you might want to consider carrying your passport at all times.
The passport card only works for Canada, Mexico and a few Caribbean countries. It is not a replacement for traveling elsewhere. It might expedite a passport replacement, but I suspect a RealId presented to the state department would have the same effect..
Anyone walking around Europe with their passport/valuables in their backpack deserves to get robbed.
That is the first place that everyone advises you NOT to put anything.
Keep it in a carrier underneath your shirt when not in the hotel safe.
However, when you are on a train you do need to carry original Identification. Which I learned on the way from Florence to Assisi. The train cop asked for ID. I showed him a picture of my passport on my phone. He said that was not good enough and FINED us. He accepted my wife’s NH Drivers License because it is a real ID. My son and I were only carrying our phones, a credit card and Euros.
Our Italian friend who was traveling with us said that the cop could have taken us in to the station and sent my wife back to the hotel to get our passports out of the hotel safe. That he was giving us a break. That all foreigners are required to present original identification on demand from any policeman or even a train conductor.
I asked IF I could use a credit card to pay the fine. he said NO, it had to be in Euros. I figured he pocketed the money. Sixty Euros each.
The last thing those little creeps want is for the police to show up.
But the article specifically contradicts that; it says she was crowded on a narrow bridge by 3 teen girls. Venice is famous for narrow bridges, BTW.
Your brain can only pay attention to a limited number of simultaneous external stimuli. When someone "accidentally" bumps into the front of your body, and you are in the act of disengaging, your brain is paying attention to nerve endings on the front of your body as well as your eyesight and hearing.
There is NO WAY you'll notice a zipper being moved on the back end of your backpack, far far away from your skin, at the same time that all the other stimulations are going on in front of you. Unless of course the thief in back screws up and puts too much pressure on your backpack. But since they have no doubt done this 1000's of times, there's little likelihood they'll screw this part up.
Prague - July 1992. My wife was in a shop when somebody "accidentally" lost their balance and came crashing into her front. She had no idea that while she was un-entangling herself, a 2nd person must have unzipped her backpack and removed her wallet. It wasn't until we were gone from the shop that she realized this. PTL her passport wasn't in there! But she did lose her Visa card, cash, and her driver's license. When we went back to the store on the slim chance that it had somehow fallen out, the clerk told her .... [punch line coming up] ....
"I noticed a gypsy in the store while you were here".
I made paper copies of each passport when I traveled to Italy. I also made copies of our NH Licenses with Real ID.
We each had a copy of these in the lining of our suitcases.
My son and I each had a money belt. Which was good to carry three hundred Euro notes in.
My wife bought a small purse with a thick 1”+ leather strap which she always carried over her shoulder/head/neck.
My son also had a small holder that was made to hold a passport, a credit card and a small amount of currency. He would wear this underneath his clothing up against his chest hanging over his neck.
Hat tip to Jane Wayne
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