There's a New Crime Fighter in Town!

My New Calling

You should see me at the park these days, ever since "the incident".  I'm like a psycho meerkat.  Perched at my lookout point, swiveling my head from side to side.  Ready to alert the pack if any dangerous beasts (children) are coming to steel their technology.  It's my mission to rid the city of these pesky criminals!

Let me explain how it all goes down.  Groups of three or four children, ranging from about six to sixteen, ("Romanian Gypsies", we're told by Parisians) approach you at the park with a piece of paper.  Nothing special, just some scrap paper they find somewhere.  They wave the paper in your face to distract you, while one of them waves the paper over your phone or whatever and picks it up without you ever noticing.  By the time you realize your item is missing, they're out of sight.  Sneaks!

Last week I had two run-ins with these gypsies in one day.

The first was while we were lunching on the patio of one of our local cafes.  Kyle pulled his wallet out to pay l'addition and immediately they were swooping in behind me with their pieces of paper trying to get near his wallet.  NO WAY!  Kyle yelled at them to scram and they left us alone.  However, they just walked right into the patio of the restaurant and went after someone else's things right away!  Can you believe the nerve, they have no fear.  They pulled the paper trick on a guy, but he could see the kid's hand under the paper and pushed him and screamed at him.  I decided I'd had enough.

That same afternoon I went to the park to read.  I read all of one page though because there were gypsies everywhere.  So, I sat perched, waiting to pounce one.  Three German boys (no older than 13) sat about 15 feet from me and pulled some things out of their bags for a picnic, along with some Eiffel Tower trinkets, etc.  I figured they probably didn't have valuables on them, but I kept a close eye on them when a group of mini criminals approached them, paper in hand.  Good thing I did, because I was sitting behind the enemies and could see what their hands were doing