Remarkable video, shot by TVE1 (Spanish national television), tracking Romanian pickpockets as they pose as tourists on the streets of Barcelona. Translations and quotes appear below.
Thanks to adevarul.es for pointing us in the direction of it.
A few quotes from the video, translated:
“It hurts me, it hurts me, because I see people here crying, they’ve lost something, they’re a couple and… I don’t like it.”
“Look at them, look at them. They’ve seen us now with our camera.”
“I’ve been working here 30 years on Las Ramblas, and every day more people are being robbed.”
“There they are now. How do you know it’s them? Because they’re here every day.”
“The majority of pickpockets are young people of Romanian origin who pretend they’re tourists.”
“We continue our walk and we find another group of pickpockets.”
“The tourist they robbed ran after them.”
“We saw how you threw the wallet. Can we talk to you for a minute?”
“The police took them to the station and kept them for 20 minutes, confirming it wasn’t a serious crime (a robbery of less than €400), took their details, and let them go.”
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
I wish every single day, somebody would steal the wallets of party members or the government. Until they realise that the laws must be changed!
are Romanians “Gypsies”, per se? Or are the Gypsies in BCN multi-ethnic in nature?
The translation was a direct translation, she didn’t say “Roma” or “Gypsies”, but “Romanians”. It’s hard to say who you’re dealing with sometimes.
Roma gypsies are are mainly from Romania but also from other eastern European countries such as Hungary and Bulgaria. In Spain the term “Romanian” is often incorrectly used to describe them. Most Romanians are decent folk who have nothing to do with crime.
Just like the people of Limerick, eh Mike? :)
[...] potential way to find victims of crime in Barcelona. Of interest to them are stories that touch on pickpocketing (of various flavours, including: petition scams, the Ronaldinho scam, the pickpockets who dress [...]
I just returned to The Netherlands from Barcelona and kicked the living hell out of a pickpocket. Why don’t they put the guardia civil on the streets and let them do this job?