Pick me not: Pro tips to avoid Europe’s pickpockets

On the internet, some rabbit holes run deeper and richer than others. The one with the pickpocket videos draws you in slowly. A travel influencer might upload a confessional about how she was “Omigawd, almost robbed” while backpacking through southern Spain. Then, the algorithm will cue up six videos featuring young women in Venice nimbly reaching into tourists’ backpacks and quickly hiding their faces as an old woman calls out “Attenzione, pickpocket!” That sets you up perfectly for videos titled “How I outsmarted bag snatchers in Paris using this one tip”. Then, of course, an ad for a shoulder sling and a concealed wallet.