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Pickpocket
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A thief who works in this manner is known as a pickpocket. As an occupation Pickpockets and other thieves, especially those working in teams, sometimes apply distraction, such as asking a question or bumping into the victim. These distractions sometimes require sleight of hand, speed, misdirection and other types of skills. Pickpockets may be found in any crowded place around the world. However, Barcelona and Rome were recently singled out as being particularly dangerous pickpocket havens. Thieves have been known to operate in high traffic areas such as mass transit stations, even boarding subway trains so they can use the distractions of crowds and sudden stop-and-go movements from the train to steal from others. As soon as the thieves have ...
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Pickpocket (film)
''Pickpocket'' is a 1959 French film written and directed by Robert Bresson, the first for which Bresson wrote an original screenplay rather than adapting an existing work. It stars Martin LaSalle, who was a nonprofessional actor at the time, in the title role, and features Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie, and Jean Pélégri in supporting roles. The film is generally considered to be one of Bresson's greatest films. Plot Michel goes to a race at Longchamp Racecourse and takes some money from a woman's purse. He leaves the track confident he was not noticed, but is suddenly arrested. At the police station, the chief inspector releases him because it cannot be proven that he stole the money. The next day, Michel goes to visit his sickly mother, who he has not seen in a month. Her neighbor, Jeanne, offers to let him in the apartment, but, instead, he gives her money to give his mother and leaves. Michel goes to meet his friend Jacques at a bar and asks for help finding a job. He sees ...
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Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film. Much of his work is known for being tragic in story and nature. Bresson is among the most highly regarded filmmakers of all time. He has the highest number of films (seven) that made the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll of the 250 greatest films ever made. His works ''A Man Escaped'' (1956), ''Pickpocket'' (1959) and '' Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966) were ranked among the top 100, and other films like '' Mouchette'' (1967) and '' L'Argent'' (1983) also received many votes. Jean-Luc Godard once wrote, "He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music." Life and career Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son ...
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George Barrington
George Barrington (14 May 1755 – 27 December 1804) (real name Walden) was an Irish-born pickpocket, popular London socialite, Australian pioneer (following his transportation to Botany Bay), and author. His escapades, arrests, and trials were widely chronicled in the London press of his day. For over a century following his death, and still perhaps today, he was most celebrated for the couplet “True patriots all; for be it understood, We left our country for our country’s good” The attribution of the line to Barrington is considered apocryphal since the 1911 discovery by Sydney book collector Alfred Lee of the 1802 book in which the line first appeared. Personal life Barrington was born at Maynooth in County Kildare, son either of a working silversmith named Waldron, or of Captain Barrington, English troop commander. At some point in the 1785–1787 period he married and the couple had a child, but the names of the wife and child, and their eventual fates, are ...
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Magic (illusion)
Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art form. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as Maskelyne and Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, and Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has become known as "the Golden Age of Magic." During this period, performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre, vaudeville, and music halls. Magic retained its popularity in the television age, with magicians such as Paul Daniels, David ...
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David Avadon
David Avadon (December 11, 1948 – August 22, 2009), formerly "David Hutchins," was an American illusionist who billed himself as the country's "premier exhibition pickpocket." He lectured and wrote a book on pickpocketing and performed his trademark theatrical pickpocketing act for more than 30 years. Early years Avadon was born in Inglewood, California, his mother being an acrobatic dancer and his father an engineer. Avadon grew up in West Los Angeles and began practicing magic as a hobby while in elementary school. He studied theater at UCLA and studied magic with Dr. Giovanni and Marian Chavez. Professional illusionist In his 20s, he changed his name from David Hutchins to David Avadon. He began appearing as a professional illusionist at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and other clubs in the 1970s. He remained a regular performer at the Magic Castle for more than 30 years. After Avadon's death in 2009, Mark Nelson, chairman of the Academy of Magical Arts which operates ...
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Mary Frith
Mary Frith (c. 1584 – 26 July 1659), alias Moll (or Mal) Cutpurse, was an English notorious pickpocket and fence of the London underworld. Meaning of nicknames Moll, apart from being a nickname for Mary, was a common name in the 16th through 17th centuries for a young woman, usually of disreputable character. The term "Cutpurse" refers to her reputation as a thief who would cut purses to steal the contents. The other name by which she was known, "The Roaring Girl" is derived from the early modern London trend of "roaring boys," or aggressive young men of lower social stations who defied codes of civility and aped the belligerent and courtly styles of the upper class. An eccentric life The facts of her life are extremely confusing, with many exaggerations and myths attached to her name. ''The Life of Mrs Mary Frith'', a sensationalised biography written in 1662, three years after her death, helped to perpetuate many of these myths. Mary Frith was born in the mid-158 ...
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James Freedman
James Freedman (born 6 April 1965) is a British entertainer who is best known for his skill as a pickpocket. He has picked the pockets of the Mayor of London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England. In 2013 '' Time Out'' wrote that he is "the world's number one pickpocket". Freedman is an authority on pickpocket techniques and is consulted by police forces and security professionals for advice. In 2015, he was appointed the UK's first Fraud Prevention Ambassador by the City of London Police. Special consultant Freedman acts as a consultant inventing magic tricks and illusions for feature films, television shows, theatre and stadium productions. He worked on the 2006 film '' The Illusionist'', and taught Edward Norton and Aaron Taylor-Johnson the necessary skills for their parts; Norton said that "James is one of the ultimate all-stars in his field today". He was asked by Roman Polanski to teach Sir Ben Kingsley (for his role as Fagin) and ot ...
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Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law (also statutory law), where in many cases it remains in force. The crime of larceny has been abolished in England, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland, broken up into the specific crimes of burglary, robbery, fraud, theft, and related crimes. However, larceny remains an offence in parts of the United States, Jersey, and in New South Wales, Australia, involving the taking (caption) and carrying away (asportation) of personal property without the owner's consent. Etymology The word "larceny" is a late Middle English word, from the Anglo-Norman word ''larcin'', "theft". Its probable Latin root is ''latrocinium'', a derivative of ''latro'', "robber" (originally mercenary). By nation Australia New South Wales In the ...
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Oliver Twist
''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the " Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin. ''Oliver Twist'' unromantically portrays the sordid lives of criminals, and exposes the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. The alternative title, ''The Parish Boy's Progress'', alludes to Bunyan's '' The Pilgrim's Progress'', as well as the 18th-century caricature series by painter William Hogarth, '' A Rake's Progress'' and '' A Harlot's Progress''. In an early example of the social novel, Dickens satirises child labour, domestic violence, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel ma ...
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Frieze Art Fair
Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2021 was held in the Shed at Hudson Yards, with its inaugural Los Angeles edition taking place February 2019. The London edition normally has about 160 exhibitors in Frieze. It is held over four days in a 40,000SqM tent. There is a simultaneous Frieze Masters event showing older work with about 130 exhibitors, and a temporary sculpture park. In 2021 stand rental was £524 per sqM. Background The fair was launched by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the founders of ''frieze'' magazine. Although staged for the purpose of selling work, out of its 68,000 visitors it was suggested in 2006 that 80% attend purely to spectate."With a View to Make More Profit", Financial Times, March 4, 2006 The fair also commissions artist projects and holds ...
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Shoplifting
Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items from the store and leave the store wearing the clothes. The terms ''shoplifting'' and ''shoplifter'' are not usually defined in law. The crime of shoplifting generally falls under the legal classification of larceny. Shoplifting is distinct from burglary (theft by breaking and entering, breaking into a closed store), robbery (stealing by threatening or engaging in violent behavior), or armed robbery (stealing by using a weapon). In the retail industry, the word ''Shrinkage (accounting), shrinkage'' (or ''shrink'') can be used to refer to merchandise lost by shoplifting, but the word also includes loss by other means, such as waste, uninsured damage to products and theft by store employees. Shoplifters range from amateurs acting on impulse ...
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Artful Dodger
Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist''. The Dodger is a pickpocket, so called for his skill and cunning in that occupation. He is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London, trained by the elderly Fagin. The term has become an idiom describing a person with skilful deception. Role in the novel In the novel, he becomes Oliver's closest friend (although he betrays Oliver when Oliver is caught) and he tries to make him a pickpocket, but soon realises that Oliver will not succeed, and feels sorry for him, saying "What a pity it is he isn't a prig!" He also has a close relationship with Charley Bates. The Artful Dodger is characterised as a child who acts like an adult. He is described as wearing adult clothes which are much too large for him. Like an adult, he seldom gives in to childish urges. Ultimately the Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box and presumably transpor ...
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