How to send the pickpockets packing

THE INTERCITY train from Brussels arrived at Antwerp Central station a few minutes late and passengers pushed forward in a mad scramble to get aboard. A well-dressed man elbowed me out of the way, almost knocking an elderly woman in the crush. Seconds later, the rude man was exiting again, through the crowd, muttering loudly that he needed to be on another train, jostling past us to get off.

Aboard the Amsterdam-bound morning train and dying for a coffee, I reached for my purse to pay. It had vanished from inside my zipped-up handbag, which I was carrying postman-style, to prevent it being snatched. This Benelux route is notorious for pickpockets, and passengers are constantly warned to keep their belongings beside them.

The catering trolley-server, who kindly paid for my coffee himself, out of pity, asked if the guy on the wrong train passed me in the crush. “Oh yeah…, there were a few more victims earlier in the week, that trick has been going on for a while now. He probably has others taking purses and wallets while he diverts attention away”.