We went out with London’s ‘pickpocket hunter’ to watch him sniff out thieves

The first thing Londoner Diego Galdino thinks about every morning is pickpockets.

When he goes to the toilet, makes a coffee or cracks on with his day job as a food delivery driver, his thoughts always turn to ‘the next one he is going to catch’.

That’s because the 32-year-old is one of London’s unknown heroes. In his own spare time he perches daily by lampposts, watching over the sea of tourists outside Buckingham Palace and in St James’s Park ready to spring into action.

Today, Diego has invited Metro to join him on pickpocket patrol. Dressed all in black and armed with a GoPro, stab vest and criminal detection spray, he claims to have caught nearly 20 pickpockets in the act. My shorthand pad and trainers look lackluster in comparison.

‘Every day before I leave the house, I say a quick prayer and then get hunting,’ he explains. ‘The other day, I was thinking about the ones I have managed to stop, and I started to cry.’

‘Attention, everyone! Pickpocket!’

As we stand innocuously near the Blue Bridge in St James’ Park, tourists milled around licking ice creams and marveling at the geese. We are chatting about how to spot thieves, when Diego springs into action.

Visibly tensing up, he grabs his phone out of his pocket, and bellows ‘ATTENTION! PICKPOCKET!’ from across the crowds.

Everyone turns to stare at two middle aged women who were hanging around a group of teenagers on school trip. Diego says he has seen the pair steal many times before.

Unbothered by the crowds of people telling him to leave the women alone, the pickpocket hunter shouts and records them until they left the park.

He said: ‘I get tunnel vision after I spot them. I can’t see or hear anything else. Everything else becomes lost to me.’

Walking back over the bridge across a pond, the mood changes and Diego, who moved from the south of Brazil to London six years ago, is met with cries of ‘hero’ and given handshakes by people who stayed to watch the dramatic scene.

‘I don’t often get people coming up to say “thank you”, but it’s nice,’ he admits.

‘I know how to spot them – my instincts are crazy’

Spotting pickpockets in dense crowds is a skill. I scan everyone walking past who might match Diego’s descriptions, but in typical London fashion everyone merges into one.

However, Diego is clearly an expert. Pointing at the mass of people waiting to watch the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace, he reveals one of the biggest tell tales is cheap shoes.

He explains: ‘I have absolutely crazy instincts now just based off what they are wearing. They usually have bucket hats or visors on, flashy but obviously fake designer sunglasses, and cheap shoes.’

Pickpockets usually work in pairs, he adds, describing how they often walking erratically by stopping suddenly or randomly changing direction. They tend to target older groups of tourists.

‘They know how to use London’s alleyways and hidden passages to their advantage to make a quick and discreet getaway,’ Diego explains. ‘Now they have even started hiding their faces from me when they see me coming – but it makes it even easier to catch them.’

He always offers footage of pickpockets to police and tries to flag officers down. The day before Metro went out with him, he managed to get one woman arrested.

But often, they tell him to leave it to the professionals – despite theft rates soaring across the city.

‘I couldn’t sleep the first night I saw them’

Being a pickpocket hunter is a fairly new thing for the delivery driver, who only began a few weeks ago. It all started when he came home from an evening gym session via Buckingham Palace, and saw a group of men and women behave weirdly around a young woman walking on her own.

Diego cycled over and saw one of the group reach for the girl’s bag – already feeling pumped from his workout, he knew he had to intervene.

‘I got between the girl and the others and they began pushing at me, but eventually they ran off and left me and the girl alone. Afterwards I couldn’t sleep at all, because I was so excited I was able to catch one,’ he recalls.

Since then, Diego has challenged at least 20 different thieves, many of whom return to the same spots despite police intervention.

‘A lot of the time, they just run away from me. But I’ve been spat at, and hit on the back and pushed to the ground. But if I can help one person its worth it,’ he says. 

Beware the vigilante

However, despite his good intentions, police say it is best to report any suspicious behaviour to them.

The Metropolitan Police said: ‘We urge Londoners and tourists to stay alert in crowded places and report any suspicious behaviour or pickpockets to police.

‘This summer the capital’s town centres and high streets will see an enhanced police presence as part of our work to build on reductions in theft, robbery and antisocial behaviour.

‘We’ll be targeting hotspot areas with both plain and uniformed patrols, building on the progress we’ve already made with a 15.6 per cent reduction in theft from the person in the first six weeks of this financial year.’

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