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Pickpockets rob us in 40 seconds while shopping at the mall. It’s all they need to fit in their purse and walk away with their wallet or phone.
The criminals added that it is now fashionable to pretend that they are shopping for winter, bulky clothes, which they throw over one arm, ostensibly to try them on. Under the cover of the coat, on the other hand, they rummage through the bags and backpacks of customers who have gone to get their Christmas presents. The Energy Ministry has also warned of a second dangerous trend right now: Pickpockets have slipped past post offices and are harassing elderly pensioners, writes the “Telegraph”.
The most problematic are Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv and Burgas. However, there have also been many people who have refused to report to the police. An interesting detail is that the pickpockets were not afraid of any surveillance cameras. 90% of them have criminal records and pending cases.
“The thieves move in a group of two or three women at most. They are dressed in the latest fashion, wearing gold jewelry, makeup, necessarily with nail art and false eyelashes. Most likely they spent 1-2 seasons in Europe ” They enter the shops, where they see that there are more customers. While casually looking at coats, jackets and sweaters, however, they spot their victims,” police officers said.
After determining which man or woman to rob, the thieves throw the allegedly stolen clothing over one hand and approach the person. In 40 seconds they managed to get all the money out of him. Reports of pickpocketing in malls across the country have skyrocketed in recent weeks.
Unlike last year, when Albanian and Romanian pickpockets were also active in Bulgaria during the Christmas and New Year holidays, now only women are left in Bulgaria, according to Interior Ministry operational data.
According to criminologists, the poorest thieves who came from the countryside to big cities on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve worked on the transport. They preyed on their victims in two waves: in the morning when people went to work and in the late afternoon from 5:30 to 7:00 when they returned home. They jostled into the crowded flights, trams and trolleys and collected what they could.
A serious Berkovitsa group, however, was currently operating under a new scheme, investigators warned.
“They hang around the post office on pension days. They mark a grandma or grandpa and follow him to his house. They wait for him to come in the hall and sit next to him. They talk to him, smile at him about him,” the cops said. After closing the distance, the pickpockets posed as clothes sellers. They held them in one hand and shoved them in the pensioner’s face. As he tried to free himself, they confused him. There have already been several cases when the thieves got into the elevator with the victim.
“They are again trying to persuade him to buy, for example, the bottom of a tracksuit. If he doesn’t want to, we have already recorded such cases, it turns into a robbery. This means that they take the money of the elderly by force” , explained the GDNP. In two of the latest cases a week ago last year, elderly men chased the thieves, but she managed to escape. In the second case, a man chased a pickpocket, robbed a grandmother of his pension, but she too managed to escape and is currently wanted.
The most curious case of the last month is related to pickpockets in Kostinbrod, police officers of the Sofia Police Department said.
In their words, in addition to being intelligent, the women were terribly impudent. “They have been caught dozens of times, they have several pre-trials, they have been arrested many times, but they don’t stop. The last time they said directly to the police: ‘We will not stop stealing, let’s eat from this!’ criminologists were indignant The feature of the Kostinbrod pickpockets in question was that they robbed people only in the Lyulin district.
A Romanian and two Bulgarians have been targeted by the police for several years. And they, like their colleagues from Kostinbrod, have been arrested many times, but they do not stop pickpocketing. The foreigner has been in our country for about 10 years, he has no documents and cannot return to Romania. The embassy issued him a temporary document several times, but he did not use it. He too recently went to the border, but he was returned to us because he didn’t have a passport. While he was with us, he shoplifted with two of our residents, mainly attacking pubs and restaurants.
“If you feel even the slightest touch or strange movements near you, stop and immediately look around to see if someone is rummaging through your bag,” advises the interior ministry. their belongings unattended, all their money in one place, keep an eye on bags and backpacks when you are in shopping centers and on public transport. During the process, keep an eye on their bags as pickpockets enter everywhere.
