Ciao tutti! This is the first of many blog posts from my recent trip to belisima Italia. I thought there'd be no better way to start than to recount how 5 American women took on a Roman pick-pocketer.
It was our last day in Italy and we made our final connection via Eurostar from Florence to Rome to catch the express train to Roma Fiumicino airport. Our tickets were for the second to last train out that night at 10:22 pm, so it was a bit later in the night but not so much that the platform was entirely void of people. There were 5 women that formed my travel group and never once did I feel unsafe.
As the train pulled in, I looked around to make sure I had all my bags but a guy nearby fiddling and repositioning his jacket on his arm caught my eye. My gut told me to keep tabs on him. As a few of us started boarding the train, jacket guy got closer to our group to the point where I started watching him closely since the platform wasn't that crowded. Then he shuffled close to my friend who was on the step with her bag close to the platform. Jacket on his left hand, he used it as a curtain and reached for my friend's phone inside the bag.
Instinct kicked in. I quickly grabbed his hand and started yelling "NO!" repeatedly at steady intervals. (Sidenote: As a singer, I know how to project my voice- he chose the wrong girl to not cause a commotion.) The other women in my group sort of automatically formed a circle around him and the train with their bodies and suitcases- in retrospect, it's awesome how instinct played its part in our reactions. He got out of my grip so I started swatting at him (haha). It was then that he cut me. It definitely wasn't a scrape from his fingernails, it was too precise a line for that. I'm guessing a small knife or some other sharp object he kept under the jacket.
To counter my persistent yelling, he started cussing me out and grabbing his crotch to play off the situation like I was falsely accusing him. During the verbal altercation on the platform, my friend discovered that he swiped her cell phone. At that point I didn't mess with him because it was escalating quickly so I tried to make eye contact with a platform attendant while he walked back toward our group and onto the train car.
I yelled to my friend to check his jacket since he boarded the train and she was right there between the two cars with him. Girl swung into action like nobody's business! She was all over him demanding he give back her phone. She got hold of him, took the wallet out of his pants, pulled the jacket from him and got her phone back.
We went into our car to get away from him and at that point saw the platform guy come onto the train. I assume he took care of the pick-pocketer because we were busy checking all of our belongings in the next car to ensure he didn't take anything else. Plus, the train departed later than normal. A few days earlier we missed the same express train (only one minute off the arrival time).
So although we have no official closure that the perp was caught, I am proud of how we banded together and chose fight rather than flight. It's reaffirming as a woman to know that the capability to kick @$$ is there and ready.
5 American women=power.
