Earlier this week, my traveling companion lost her wallet to one of these young women as we sat in a cafe in the Paris Gare de l'Est station even with our awareness of exactly what was going on and our very aggressive attempts to prevent the theft. My friend did make a police report but it was very obvious this sort of theft happens so frequently it's not worth investigating. In looking back on the incident, I'm not sure what we could have done differently other than to make an even bigger fuss by yelling, or perhaps trying to take a picture of the young woman in the hopes of scaring her off somehow.

While walking between Paris Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est earlier that day, we had to fend off quite a number of these petitioners as well as "helpful" young men who tried to help us carry our bags. I'm a seasoned traveler and very aware of safety precautions but these experiences were discouraging enough to make me think twice about going through the Paris train stations again anytime soon.