Life imitating Cantr?

[Sho]

Thomas is a cluster of soap bubbles in polarized light. No wonder he doesn't look like a tourist in Germany.

[David]

About the Hawain Shirt thing... its mostly true. Not in my case though.

[Bran-Muffin]

Hey man dragon and playing cards shirts here, plus you have to have the backwards hate and the dark sunglasses, with the faded tight fit blue jeans with holes in them.

Think i said to much about that already.

Joking, i wear the normal loose fit khaki (spelling?) type pants and t-shirts with logos or sayings on them.

[grayjaket]

Are there thieves who spot thieves and steal from them? I think that'd be awesome....

[Thomas Pickert]

@Sho: From your photo I would guess, that you're at home somewhere in a scientific lab.

[Junesun]

Best way to spot an American tourist: watching out for the "DOES ANYBODY SPEAK ENGLISH HERE?".

Thieves in Italy (and also elsewhere) don't particular aim at american tourists, but at tourists in general.
If you have a camera, tourist. If you carry a backpack, tourist. Sunburn, tourist. You look amazed at hostorical buildings, tourist. You carry a map, tourist. You ask for directions, tourist. List goes on...
I don't think that you should spend too much effort on avoiding to look like a tourist. Professional thieves (usually gangs of those) will spot you anyway. They don't see someone, and go and try to steal from him, they spy on you for a while first, to find your weak spots.

I think they may target American tourists in particular though, since the idea is that Americans have more money and carry around more valuable things (wishing to keep their lifestyle in "backward" countries like Europe). However, that doesn't prevent them from stealing from others as well.

Once I participated in a student exchange with a city near Padova. I was with a couple of friends, all of us looking like normal broke students. On the way from Milan to Padova, we had experienced an Italian train that decided to stop in the middle of the countryside for several hours without any apparent reason, providing for a 5 hour (!) lag, so we carefully calculated in a 2 hour stay at Milan for the way back. Of course that time the train from Padova to Milan was punctual, so we had to spend 2 hours at Milan train station waiting for the train to Germany. We piled up all the heavy suitcases, backpacks etc. in our middle and chatted. In the middle of the conversation, I felt somebody jerkily removing one of the strings of my backpack from under my foot. He sped off with the backpack before I even realised the impudent theft. I asked my friends to watch out for the bags and ran after him, shouting loudly that he was a thief and that people should stop him, but I unconsciously did so in German, so the Italians just looked at me blankly. He managed to disappear in the crowd. The backpack didn't contain any money, but it contained my camera, the films with all the photos I had taken in Italy, my travel log, my identity card (used like a passport within Europe) and a train ticket from Milan to the Italian border (after that, we were to use group tickets). It was so annoying!
Fortunately we still had more than an hour left and fortunately I had a good command of Italian, so I managed to explain to the Italian police what happened and get them to quickly give me a temporary passport and a train ticket, so we didn't miss our train because of the incident. Still this thief managed to steal most of my souvenirs of Italy.

Judith

[The Hunter]

Never ever been robbed, and damn, i'v been in many situations where I should have been.

Wearing a backpack you're already a target. So, when I wear one, and there's peaple aound me, (like on an escalator) I either take it off and hold it in front of me, or when this is not possible(holding another bag, etc.) i "wiggle" it. Also, I usually have it tied with some rope.

Avoid wearing too "touristic" clothes.
Look around. Be aware of what's happening around you. Even tho you look like a rich tourist, muggers won't target you as you're too much of a risk.
Never wear your wallet in your backpocket. I alway's wear mine in my (front?) pocket, damn, I'm having trouble taking it out myself when I need it. Additionally, in any risk area. The extra cash goes in some secret pocket, or behind my belt, hell, even in my underwear if I must.

When I sit down and have to take my backpack off, I always keep a hold of it, or i put oneof the slings wrapped around my arm or leg... when someone grabs it and runs away, they must drag some "all but dead weight" along.

Whatever more way's there are to avoid getting mugged, the "being aware" is the most important.

I once left my bag 2 metres behind me when buying a train ticket at the Central station in amsterdam. 2 policemen pointed out that it was a matter of time before it got stolen. "The grab it and run away with it without you even noticing". I thanked the policemen and sniggered at the thought os some skinny junkie trying to lift and run away a 40 KG bag. I once seen them trying it at a small airport! The luggage handler bent over, grabbed the bag, made a lifting motion and almost instantaniously reached for his back and got his collegue to fetch a "heavy" sticker, and left the bag to be picked up by one of those "mini forklifts" lol.

[new.vogue.nightmare]

And that leads us to our next anti-theft strategy...

Always carry around a large block of lead. Not only does it make your goods harder to lift, but you can cause some major destruction once you get some momentum on it

[Thomas Pickert]

I can imagine the policeman who'll have to write the according report.

'What do you mean, you saw a high-velocity, suitcase-shaped projectile passing by?!'

[Sho]

@Thomas: Hey, you're right! My home is getting to look like a chem lab in some places.

In the part of New York City I live in, you can recognize tourists because they're the ones standing around F.A.O. Schwartz (famous mega toy store that recently closed) due to outdated guide books.

[thingnumber2]

here you can recognize easy targets cuz they're white....

[Sho]

Or black, or, as a matter of fact, anything but Japanese. Ah, the joys of an ethnic monoculture - you know exactly who's a tourist.

[kroner]

@Thomas: Hey, you're right! My home is getting to look like a chem lab in some places.

In the part of New York City I live in, you can recognize tourists because they're the ones standing around F.A.O. Schwartz (famous mega toy store that recently closed) due to outdated guide books.

whoa... i didn't even know it closed... and i live a mere 3 miles away...

[west]

Or black, or, as a matter of fact, anything but Japanese. Ah, the joys of an ethnic monoculture - you know exactly who's a tourist.

I've heard the Japanese culture is one of the most xenophobic and/or racist of any anywhere.

Is there truth in that?

[The Hunter]

Never been there but the general consensus is that is is.

Collegue's who have been there confirm that story. Nearly every bar or whatever has a sign " Japanese only".