Jane glanced at her left wrist and found that her watch was missing.
Everyone laughed as Stanley held up her watch, swinging it like a pendulum.
‘Tick tock…’
Jane was shocked. ‘How did you get that… and my warrant card?’
Church took her watch from Stanley and pulled up her shirt sleeve to replace it on her wrist.
‘Your mind can only properly focus on one thing at a time. Clever pickpockets distract their marks whilst simultaneously lifting their wallet, purse or watch. The targets don’t notice at the time because they’re too focused on the distraction. It takes a thief to catch a thief, Tennison, and we practice what the bad guys do… but only on each other. It keeps us on our toes. I like to think of myself as Fagin, and these reprobates are my little pickpockets.’
There was a unanimous groan from the squad. Stanley jovially twanged his red braces and launched into the song from Oliver!, ‘Consider yourself…’ Church gave him a good-natured swipe across the head.
‘All right, all right, Dodger, just calm down. I’m going to need you all to step out to the yard and do a little bit of “bump and lift” work for Tennison to observe. I’ll organise some teas all round and a few sandwiches whilst we’re out there.’
Jane was, in fact, observing how attractive DCI Church was, and noticed how much respect he had from the squad.
As they herded out of the room a tall, baby-faced officer stood beside Jane.
‘Don’t worry, I’m pretty new to all this as well. I’m DC Dunston, but they all call me Blondie.’
Jane thought he might be trying to distract her, and held her handbag tight to her side and checked her watch.
‘What’s bump and lift?’ she asked.
‘Sounds like a dance, doesn’t it? It’s the action Stanley and Maynard pulled on you earlier. Maynard distracted you with the push and when Stanley stopped you falling you thought he was helping you. He put pressure on your upper arm, again distracting you, then with his free hand he flicked your watch strap undone and slipped it from your wrist. At the same time, Maynard unzipped your handbag and took your warrant card.’
‘It all happened so quickly.’
‘That’s the way the dippers operate on the streets. This type of theft is a combination of distraction and misdirection, which gives the pickpocket just enough time to make the lift and walk away. If you think Stanley and Maynard were fast, the real dippers are like lightning…’
Jane nodded. ‘I’m certainly going to be wary when I’m out shopping from now on.’
They headed up a heavily worn stone staircase towards the back exit to the station yard.
Blondie continued, ‘There’s a lot to learn about the different distraction techniques and hand movements they use. There’s bump, grab and slip, fake lifts, oops sorry, and—’
‘Is there some sort of manual that I can read?’ Jane asked.
‘No manual, as such, but I’ve made my own list of distraction techniques and methods that the pickpockets use. You can have a copy if you want,’ Blondie offered as he held the back door open for her.
‘Thanks, that would be really helpful.’
‘The difficult part to follow is when one of the gang makes a lift and passes the goods to a “runner”, who then makes off with the property… sometimes they’ll pass a wallet or purse three or four times… it can be like a “guess who” game, and sometimes you end up stopping a suspect who’s empty-handed.’
They reached a small, stone-flagged yard surrounded by a high red-brick wall, with paint-peeled double gates and a run-down bicycle shed next to a row of aluminium dustbins.
‘It’s all much more complicated than I ever imagined. Do the suspects resist arrest?’
‘Sometimes. You need to be careful of the pickpockets who carry small razor blades to cut a rear pocket or handbag open. The cut is made against a wallet or handbag so the mark usually doesn’t feel a thing.’
Jane remembered an old case she’d been involved in.
‘At my previous station we had a bag-slasher who was using a switchblade. Is that the kind of weapon your pickpockets would use?’
‘Most pickpockets avoid using switchblades or flick knives… I know of only one occasion where an officer was cut, and that was just on his hand, by a razor blade. All in all, it’s interesting work and nicking a good team of pickpockets is really rewarding. Keeps Church happy if we get good results.’
An officer appeared with a tray of polystyrene cups and shouted ‘Tea’s up’. Maynard started to hand Jane a half-filled cup of tea. As she reached out to take it, he said. ‘We’re all having a break now, but here’s a word of warning: when you’re out working never be caught with a cup of anything in your hand. Let me show you why.’
Maynard gently bumped into Jane, causing some of the contents of her teacup to spill out. She immediately reached into her pocket for a tissue to mop it up, but Maynard produced a large handkerchief and started to pat down her jacket.
Stanley interjected. ‘Oh, come on, Maynard. Let’s get on with the real demonstrations. Tennison, just take it that you never carry any drinks whilst you’re on the job… it’s the easiest way for a pickpocket to distract and pinch the contents of your coat or jacket pockets whilst they are patting you dry.’
Church clapped his hands saying that the break was over, and it was time to demonstrate the various methods of distraction and misdirection. Although he was serious about the training there were several funny moments when officers, who took turns playing the mark, were oblivious to the fact that their wallet had been stolen. This was usually achieved by Stanley, who was the most adept at ‘dipping’, concealing his hand movements with a folded newspaper.
Jane was not the only victim. The team seemed to take great pleasure in removing Blondie’s wallet, not once but three times. When Stanley accidently dropped some loose change on the floor, Jane, without thinking, bent over to help pick up the coins. Whilst she was kneeling on the ground, Maynard stole Jane’s purse from her handbag.
‘I know what you’ve done,’ Jane said, raising her eyes upwards.
Maynard held his huge hands up, saying, ‘Search me! Search me!’ Jane watched as Stanley made a rugby pass of her leather coin purse across the yard, to be caught by Church on the other side. He held it up.
‘OK, fun’s over. Let’s get back inside.’ Church handed Jane her purse.
Inside, Church showed her a covert radio, which they would be using when they went out on the streets.
‘You have to learn how to listen. Stick with Stanley today to learn the basics. Here’s a list of the radio terms you need to memorise for future jobs.’ Church handed her a rather dirty page of typed radio terminology. Jane barely had time to glance at it before he continued, ‘You’ll be going on a surveillance operation this morning. We work it that when the suspect is in position and looks ready to jostle and do the business, such as nick a wallet or whatever, we move in so he’s surrounded and nicked as soon as he commits the theft. But, in this instance this is an ongoing case: we’re looking out for our suspect’s pals as they’re working in a team and we need to act fast to see who he’s palming off the gear to. I won’t be satisfied with just bringing in one of them. We all have concealed radios, so we cross communicate during the follow and when the arrest takes place, we’ve got a wagon on standby. If it’s a good arrest, often the intended victim hasn’t a clue what just happened. Are you with me?’
‘Er, yes, sir, I do understand… I had to study powers of arrest in my probation. I’m just wondering if you’re going to use me as some kind of decoy, being that I’m the only female on the team?’
Everyone laughed at Jane’s remark as Church picked up the report sheet he had been handing out.