Thief: I prey on partygoers
Published:Monday | April 14, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Corey Robinson, Staff Reporter
Promoters of the popular Reggae Sumfest stage show had just brought the curtains down on the event's final day, and as the crowd pushed its way towards the exits, so, too, did a young man, pressing his fingers into an unsuspecting patron's back pocket and trying with a grunt to lift the victim's wallet.
It must have taken a good six seconds for him to secure a firm pinch on the bulging leather, and the second he did, he felt a heavy hand fall on to his right shoulder.
"Police. Come with me," he heard as he felt a tug on his waistband that led him from the stream of patrons.
That was about two years ago, the only time the young man, who asked that he be called Peter, had come anywhere near to being collared in 10 years.
not a pickpocket
Peter, who prides himself as a "teka, not a pickpocket", today laughs about his escape. It was hilarious, even questionable, he said, that a police superintendent, after searching Peter and finding a cellular phone he had earlier taken from a female patron's handbag, ordered him back into the crowd to find his brother, to whom Peter had lied that the instrument, belonged.
The booty was abandoned, but that policeman never saw him again that morning.
Since then, Peter and a group of about five bandits from the area covered by the St Andrew South Police Division have continued to relieve unsuspecting partygoers and shoppers of their valuables, specifically of money and high-end smart phones.
Today, they have made a profession out of it, using funds from their "hustle" to purchase and maintain motor vehicles they use as taxis.
One of them has even opened a small shop to serve residents of his community.
Unlike robbers and pickpockets, tekas, Peter explained, do not approach their victims with violence. Their prey is properly profiled, based on assumed wealth, and hits are calculated and organised.
In some cases, they even pay to enter events so they can relieve careless pockets of their contents.
spend money to make money
"You affi spen' money fi mek money. If you pay five or six gran' go inna a party and yuh a leave wid couple cellphones and a 20 or a 30 gran', you can't lose," said Peter, calling that kind of money "joke ting" on a good night.
Sometimes, he added, when stolen cellular phones contain work-related or sexually graphic information, blackmail becomes an additional money-making opportunity.
Blackmailing brings the most money, sometimes up to $150,000, said Peter, a 20-ish 'ghetto yute', snazzily dressed in a pair of Bermuda shorts, a T-shirt, and gold chains.
He spoke in a subdued tone, his bleached-out skin trapped in a garish web of tattoos from neck to calves.
It's all about the type of people and events that you target, he continued, flicking his nose in an attempt to rid it of the scent of smoke rising from the nearby Riverton City dump.