Jacqueline Newbold

The secret to a good pickpocket scam is when you don’t even realize that you are being pick pocketed.  Such was the event that happened to us while we were in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  On Easter Sunday we walked along several miles of an open air craft market on our way to the famous Sunday outdoor antique market in San Telmo Square.  My chance to finally do some shopping!  Everyone had been warning us to watch out for pick-pocketers in the market.  I had my purse crossways around my body the whole time with my hand on my zipper just waiting for someone to try to reach into my purse as there was no way they would be getting anything from me!

After cruising through the market we continued our walk through a park that was alive with parakeets, kids playing and people out enjoying the day.  Unexpectedly from up above, a large amount of green, sticky bird poop fell onto my head, neck, back and all down David’s back too.   Stunned, I look up in the tree expecting to see a condor or flock of eagles or some huge bird.  A man sitting on the grassy knoll and witness to the whole event came up to us offering a torn bit of a third world type rough paper towel that he happened to have.   Amazingly a couple appeared seemingly out of nowhere with more tiny bits of paper towels and a bottle of water, offering to help wipe off the mess on our backs.  

The lady motioned to me to help wiped David while she proceeded to wipe off my back and purse which at that time I assumed had bird poop on it too.  One of the guys started wiping off his back and David felt him try to open up his Velcro back pocket where he had put his wallet.  Just about that time I asked David if he thought we were getting pick pocketed and he said he was wondering the same thing.  I quickly grabbed the zipper on my purse that I had so carefully been holding on to all day.  I was distracted by the thought of bird poop all over me.  I also had conflicting thoughts thinking these people are so nice to help foreigners while at the same time not  liking the fact that they were wiping me down.

My purse zipper was opened by several inches!  Then suddenly just as quickly as they had appeared, they disappeared – empty handed, I am happy to say!  We then realized that the whole bird poop, guy on the grassy knoll and the unsavory couple had been part of an unsuccessful orchestrated pick pocket scam in Buenos Aires.