pickpockets

'This is how I make my living,' one alleged pickpocketer explained.

Watch your belongings!

They took a woman's cellphone and credit cards.

If you can't feel your thighs, then they can't get in there to feel them either.

The NYPD is searching for two women and a little girl who stole a wallet from a woman's handbag at a boutique in Queens earlier this month.

A "good thief" will pat around the victim first, before zeroing in on a pocket that needs cutting. As for the actual extraction, "You cut across the wallet—like a hook."

A special type of criminal the NYPD calls the "lush worker" knows when you've had enough to drink for them to cut away at your clothing.

Career subway pickpockets may be "retiring" from the game, and most

lempkin's flickr From the tempting-fate files: according to law enforcement officials,