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anonymous
Q: What should I do when I see some one pickpocketing others on bus?
12 years 32 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
Do what any reasonable person would do. There is no where to hide on a bus. Cause a fuss get everyone watching him.
zengpingjiang:
in China to do so will retaliation, this kind of situation have become common.
"do what any reasonable person would do" sadly we are in china reason, logic and common sense have no place here.
theives from my experience in hohhot work in packs someone is likely to be standing at a distance acting as look out and back up . at least 2 or 3 total, all with knives. if it gets violent you are on your own, if you defend yourself effectively you might have pay their med bills (according to a previous posting) thats if your lucky and the cops figure out what really happened. but if the 3 claim you attacked them (violent foreigner) you could be in more serious trouble.
example of how chinese think: i stopped a pick pocket while his hand was in my friends purse my other friends did not see what happened but immediately assumed i was attacking him and they told him sorry and got me out of the way,
you think other chinese are going to stick around to back you up when the police gets there?? can you speak chinese? if you create a commotion on the bus you think they are going to get the pickpocket off the bus??? chinese are afraid to death of them
i know it is tough because we were all raised to do the right thing but here in china they dont care about the right thing. consider this then decide for yourself
Get off at the same stop as the thief and insist that he shares the spoils with you. Can't beat 'em? Join 'em right?
Do nothing. Chinese people will think you're an accomplice, and you'll run into trouble. Just check your stuff and let other stay in their misery.
If it's a local getting pick pocketed then watch and laugh, if it's a fellow foreigner say something, between you and the other guy you can take on an army of these little people!
Agree with those who have said it is a difficult decision with a lot more intangibles to consider than if you are confronted with a similar situation in your own country, where the only consideration would probably be the risk to your own safety. I would suggest that the best action would be to look at the pickpocket and hope that they will notice that they have been seen and back off. If this fails it would be very risky to intervene as any insueing police action may put you in a situation that could end up out of your control. If you can speak Chinese or if you could find 1 or 2 English speakers you could alert a few locals in the vicinity and see what they would do anhd leave it at that.
An interesting moral dilema though.
Not a close parallel but some similarity is when I have at times seen very elderly, pregnant or women with young children get on a bus. I always vacate my seat for them and most locals also do. At times I have seen teenagers just act like they are checking out their phone or some other form of gadgetry they have and refuse to get out of their seat. I have NF idea if they can speek English or not, but I just very loudly talk to my partner about how fkn rude they are and give them the death stare(all bluff I am a pretty big guy but a bsofy at heart) and they either get up or they know what is wrong and cringe from my look. Makes me feel good because they really piss me off with their shit attitude.
I have seen a pickpocket in action on a bus and he was caught by the other passengers. The driver stopped the bus and not only did they throw him off the bus but several of the passengers got off and gave him a thumping. And that was in Guangzhou.
Also in Guangzhou, I saw a shoplifter being chased down the streets by the shopkeeper and others. He had actually made off with a small television and was running away with it. They caught up with him and also gave him a thumping.
If I were to see a pickpocket, I would surely make a verbal rumpus without touching. The police are not that naive -- they will have a good idea of what is going on.
Scream out loud and direct all the attention to you and then focus that attention to the pickpocket thief. And than you can let the person who just got pickpocketed handle the situation at hand. 
Learn enough Chinese to yell "THIEF", then point and "s/he's a thief - I saw them take something from that person".
Regardless of whether ppl are afraid of them or not, they still don't like them. Besides, it then puts the pressure on the victim to do something about it.
