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20 years ago I had a somewhat similar experience - a pub off The Strand in central London. My bag/briefcase was under a (high) table, and in that case the pub

20 years ago I had a somewhat similar experience - a pub off The Strand in central London. My bag/briefcase was under a (high) table, and in that case the pub was able to view CCTV and work out the guy who sat nearby and hooked his leg to grab my bag - while I was distracted. Luckily for me, while it contained laptop and passport, I got a call 20 mins later from my wife, who had been contacted by someone 100m away in a different pub. The thief had taken my bag with laptop, not realised there was also a passport in there, gone to another pub, stolen another bag, switched my laptop into said bag, and gone off. The owner of other lost laptop had found my (empty) bag/passport, rang my wife, and we met and at least I got bag (and passport) back... Net result, lost laptop, but not lost passport. Much less hassle, although still a wake up call...

robaato 1y ago
As an aside, a friend in Tokyo only a couple of years ago suddenly realised he had lost his passport. A couple of hours of searching bags later, panic when he realised it was mid afternoon Friday, consulate was going to close soon, and not reopen until Monday - with his flight scheduled Monday early! Rang the consulate to ask advice: "oh yes, police station XXX rang us to report they had had your passport handed in - please go and pick it up!". So we did! Lovely country Japan in many ways! It had just dropped out of his bag onto pavement, been found and handed in...
- thevillagechief 1y ago
  A smallish city in Pennsylvania. Dropped my wallet/id and work badge rushing to catch the bus to work. Someone picked it up, googled me, found an article from the local newspaper announcing my wedding, all with my home address, dropped the items in my mailbox and called my office to let me know. That was when I knew that my local paper still publishes marriages, divorces and bankruptcies, complete with all personal details. That was scary.
  - chasd00 1y ago
    Names, addresses, and phone numbers use to be published and distributed for free. It was called a "phone book".
ryandrake 1y ago
Wasn't the whole point of blanketing the country with CCTV to catch criminals? If it's too low res to even work out someone's face to the point where you can identify him, then what are all those cameras achieving?
- ajb 1y ago
  For the pub, probably a discount on insurance.
  - cjrp 1y ago
    Yep, they’re probably more interested in deterring burglars.
  - tomatocracy 1y ago
    At least in London it's usually a condition of the licence these days that they have CCTV.
- lisbbb 1y ago
  Anarcho-tyranny. It's not so much to catch the career criminals as it is to make sure that no political organizing can happen on any scale major enough to disrupt the machine. The criminals are encouraged in order to terrorize the public so that they beg for bigger government, higher taxes, and more centralized control structures. The elite running the show don't actually care about "little people." Any care that actually takes place is incidental, more up to the local constabulary or local officials who aren't completely on board with the bigger picture.

robaato 1y ago

As an aside, a friend in Tokyo only a couple of years ago suddenly realised he had lost his passport. A couple of hours of searching bags later, panic when he realised it was mid afternoon Friday, consulate was going to close soon, and not reopen until Monday - with his flight scheduled Monday early! Rang the consulate to ask advice: "oh yes, police station XXX rang us to report they had had your passport handed in - please go and pick it up!". So we did! Lovely country Japan in many ways! It had just dropped out of his bag onto pavement, been found and handed in...

thevillagechief 1y ago
A smallish city in Pennsylvania. Dropped my wallet/id and work badge rushing to catch the bus to work. Someone picked it up, googled me, found an article from the local newspaper announcing my wedding, all with my home address, dropped the items in my mailbox and called my office to let me know. That was when I knew that my local paper still publishes marriages, divorces and bankruptcies, complete with all personal details. That was scary.
- chasd00 1y ago
  Names, addresses, and phone numbers use to be published and distributed for free. It was called a "phone book".

ryandrake 1y ago

Wasn't the whole point of blanketing the country with CCTV to catch criminals? If it's too low res to even work out someone's face to the point where you can identify him, then what are all those cameras achieving?

ajb 1y ago
For the pub, probably a discount on insurance.
- cjrp 1y ago
  Yep, they’re probably more interested in deterring burglars.
- tomatocracy 1y ago
  At least in London it's usually a condition of the licence these days that they have CCTV.
lisbbb 1y ago
Anarcho-tyranny. It's not so much to catch the career criminals as it is to make sure that no political organizing can happen on any scale major enough to disrupt the machine. The criminals are encouraged in order to terrorize the public so that they beg for bigger government, higher taxes, and more centralized control structures. The elite running the show don't actually care about "little people." Any care that actually takes place is incidental, more up to the local constabulary or local officials who aren't completely on board with the bigger picture.