JEDDAH, 21 October 2006 — What do you call a pile of mobile phones, wallets, passports and assorted jewelry? Depending on what you do for a living, it’s either “booty” or “evidence”. Eight women and seven men were caught sitting around a pile of booty (or evidence) by investigators that have intermingled with the throngs of pilgrims at the holy city of Makkah during Ramadan, on the lookout for precisely the kind of behavior that would lead to a group of people sitting around a pile of other people’s valuables. The suspects are being charged with the time-honored craft of pickpocketry. The suspects were reportedly using a more traditional technique, handed down from one generation of petty criminal to the next: taking a sharp blade and slicing open bags while their owners aren’t looking. Other items were taken through the more conventional picking of pockets. Investigators witnessed some of the lady suspects engaging in their trade and trailed them to their hide-out. They were all arrested while they were divvying up their booty — or evidence, if you will.
