Again, not to increase paranoia by bringing this up again, but I cannot overemphasize how unlikely it is to be victimized by pickpocketing, purse snatching, phone snatching etc. But I took a few pictures to show how someone pretty much made himself bait for being robbed on the train.

First, as in any city in the USA, in Rome many people are walking around looking at their phone, many with ear buds in. None are worried that someone will snatch their phone. That would be a very unusual crime. Even at a crowded train station many people are looking at their phone. That's not a problem because on a crowded platform no one is going to snatch your phone from your hand. A thief wouldn't get very far. It would only be a problem if a person was so mesmerized by their phone that someone pick pocketed them. The first photo at Termini shows two women on their phone. Both have their purses in front of them. It would be pretty hard to pickpocket either of them. No one is going to try to grab their purse on a subway platform like that either.

The second photo is on the train and shows the lady with the blue scarf from the previous photo, and another woman on the phone. Both have their purses in front of them. Another woman not on the phone was seated, and has her bag in front of her. All are away from the door. The third photo shows how crowded the train was.

The next two photos show how a tourist loses his phone and wallet. I have a series of photos of this unfolding, but for bandwidth reasons will just post two. A man is standing in front of the door, which is not the best place to stand. In his left hand is a brown wallet-like thing and his train ticket. I thought he was going to get off at the next stop, but he didn't. He just stood there, with the doors open. Between that stop and the next, he opened the wallet and it was actually a cell phone case with an iPhone phone in it. On the other side of the case were sleeves into which were tucked credit cards, and cash.

Pickpockets and purse snatchers know how many seconds there are from door opening to door closure, and that wallet was just asking to be snatched. Not only was he standing next to the door holding his wallet, he had opened it to show how many goodies were inside. Not to blame the near-victim, but this is pretty clueless. It was so clueless that I wondered if he was an undercover cop doing a sting, but no, he couldn't have been a cop. He was definitely a tourist from a foreign country.

Before the next stop a pick pocket started inching closer, and as you can see in the last photo, got right next to him as the train was breaking to a stop. It was obvious that when the doors opened he was going to wait for a few seconds until they were about to close, then snatch that wallet and jump out and run. The man with the wallet looked to be in his mid-50's, and didn't look like he'd do well in a chase, and was definitely not a cop. Also, the snatching of the wallet would be accompanied by a slight shove pushing him off balance a little so that he couldn't quickly respond by jumping off the train in pursuit.

Don't be that man, asking for trouble. Thieves are not looking for tourists, they are looking for people who make their job easy. None of the women on the platform or in the train using their cell phones were at any risk of something happening to them. They were using common sense. That stop was at Spagna, where I was getting off. Knowing what was about to happen I just stopped between the two until the doors were about to close, then I stepped off. Without taking the wallet of course!

I don't know what happened between the two of them after that. There are so many people who make it easy for pickpockets, like that man, that it doesn't take much to make it clear to thieves that you are not an easy target.