It includes a rogues' gallery of prostitutes, pimps, poisoners, pickpockets, murderers, and thieves. Travelers who are not in groups become easy victims of pickpockets and purse snatchers. Polypans are known to be very skilled thieves and pickpockets. Topits were employed by pickpockets and thieves during the 19th century. Pickpockets, Beggars and Ratcatchers; Life in the Victorian Underworld by Kellow Chesney. The city was plagued by pickpockets and other petty criminals. It consisted mostly of pickpockets and burglars, under Jack Zelig's Eastman Gang. The crowding also made the area a notorious haven for pickpockets and cutpurses. The Ponte Vecchio, The San Lorenzo Market and Santa Maria Novella are plagued by pickpockets. He loved practical jokes, and allegedly kept a halfpenny in his pocket to trick pickpockets. He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets. Professor Aristide (Basil Rathbone) runs a school for pickpockets in Paris. When the photographer is unwilling to part with proof, Chapman pickpockets it. The tearing noise it makes can also be useful against pickpockets. It has also suffered from the attention of pickpockets.