Be ware of a pickpocket in Saint Petersburg.


A warning sign is posted in the garden of Petrodvorets Palace, outskirts of Saint Petersburg.


Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow with 5 million inhabitants in 2012.
It is the northernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million.
Saint Petersburg is well known as the city to activities of a number of pickpockets, with Roma and
Naploli in Italy.We can see so many tourists from abroad on street and in the underground subway.
Many people use a boat cruise and sightseeing bus. Many people visit a historical palace and church.
There is a huge chance to take a wallet and belongings, like a camera.

After going around Russia and St Petersburg, we have to be very careful to the thief. They are two
or three,working in cooperation. One person in a leading role draw attention of tourists, another
in supporting role extract the wallet in sleight of hand, or cut wrist strap of camera and take it out.
No doubt, the thief would pass it to an accomplice who could probably run out. The third man in
a part of the pick-pocket team will show you the opposite direction assisting to escape the criminal.

If somebody waking behind bother you holding some scenic postcard, or solicit a boat ride, you
should escapefrom that place. A pickpocket is not always observed in crowded subway trains or
major street,like Nevskiy Prospect street. Please take special attention on a narrow sidewalk around
the canal of Moyka River and the canal to the Church of Spilled Blood.


(L) Canal to the Church of Spilled Blood (R) A busy street of Nevskiy Prospect

(L) Canal to the Church of Spilled Blood (R) A busy street of Nevskiy Prospect


There is a rumor that Asian ( from Japan, Korean, China) are particularly appeared to the thief, because
the thief gang believes they carry a lot of cash. However, it is not always so, including the writer's case.
Regardless of race, appearance, we have to act with it in mind when walking around the street and riding
a public transportation in Saint Petersburg.


The police appears to allow rampant pickpocket in the city.


Police 27 Saint Petersburg

Police 28, Saint Petersburg


The place of it happens very frequently in the street of Saint Petersburg is rather limited. The main reason
why so many pickpocket incidences occur in this city could be the attitude of city police. They appear to
do nothing about a pickpocket in Saint Petersburg. It was so unexpected; the writer became the victim of
the thief in the center of the city. However, after the incidence, when visiting the designated police station,
officers there never tried to ask a tourist about the situation how the wallet was stolen.

They do not understand English at all. The officers appeared not to want involved in things.
This phenomenon make creating a pickpocket's paradise. The criminals well knew that a non-resident
tourist would never report a pickpocket to the police station.


Modus operandi of pickpockets and Purse-snatching


The crime incidents in Saint Petersburg have been 95% decreased in 2012, compared to that of 2011,
according to the published data. However, it is still much higher in the Russian city than that of Japan.
The majority of cases that a tourist suffers are pickpockets and purse-snatching. However, violence,
including injury case, happens at night. Do not to stop when it was over voice from a strange man and
/or woman.A modus operandi for a pickpocket is that they seek to shake hands, so that it cell in his hand
the attention of a tourist, and other man of the pickpocket group quickly picks the purse or other valuable
goods.The crime prone areas are Nevsky Prospekt and nearby area. You should be careful to a crowded
street and a metro train.

The language barrier at a police station is a big problem. A police officer is unable to listen from the
pickpocket victim and cannot investigate the situation how it was happened. As a result, a police cannot
run the crackdown. All fellows of a pickpocket know this fact and thus the city of Sant Pertersburg
provides a paradise of pickpockets all the time.

Russia
Russia 2008-2012 Moscow Moscow 2014 Smoking ban in Russia Russian Smokers
Moscow Kremlin Church, museum and theatre of Moscow Moscow metro Moscow hotels
Russian life High-speed train, Sapsan Saint Petersburg Winter Palace Peterhof Palace
Catherine Palace Saint Petersburg metro Saint Petersburg hotels Pickpocket
Russia-Finland border

Street crime, pickpockets


サンクトペテルブルグのスリに注意
2014年7月撮影　2014年8月執筆
執筆　医学博士　宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
This information was provided by the Smokefree Hotel and Travel
The photographs were taken in July, and article was written in August 2014,
by Junhaku Miyamoto, M.D., PhD.
Copyright(C) 2014 Junhaku Miyamoto, All rights reserved.