JEDDAH, 22 September 2007 — For some reason people seem to trust women more than men, or so it seems considering a recent bust of an all-woman ring of pickpockets operating in and around the Grand Mosque in Makkah. According to local authorities, three women were arrested inside Islam’s holiest mosque sifting through the pockets of the faithful. Police later arrested a ringmaster who was recruiting women for the tasks at hand: Robbing from pilgrims. The police didn’t say if the leader of this gang was a woman or a man, but clearly he (or she) was employing the concept that women lingering close to your pockets are thought less likely to be thieves than men.
Meanwhile, at a Funeral Near Riyadh...
Arab News
JEDDAH — Speaking of crooks that exploit people who are caught off guard by the circumstances and situations in their lives, a 30-year-old man in Nassim, east of Riyadh, was caught with three wallets and a mobile phone. His victims? People attending a funeral at a local graveyard. The mourners grew suspicious of the man’s movements when he apparently was trying to snatch a fourth wallet. When the people realized that this wasn’t some obscure family member or friend of the deceased, the funeral-goers chased the man down and beat him up before turning him over to the local cops who were called to the scene. Well, at least it would be a funeral to remember.
