Apollo Robbins Demonstrates the Technique of a Master Pickpocket | The New Yorker
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as a vivid example of how attention works and how misdirection exploits it, and as a go-to Apollo Robbins clip whenever pickpocketing comes up.
Recommended by 4 people across 3 different months, 2013 to 2026.
What it is
A short New Yorker video in which Apollo Robbins, a theatrical pickpocket, demonstrates the techniques he uses to lift items from people's pockets. He shows how misdirection and manipulation of attention let him take watches and other belongings unnoticed.
What people said
Recommends samstave · 2013-07 · Hacker News · on “The Lost Art of Pickpocketing (2011)”
There are a number of great vids of him doing his "act" now as well; including this one with the writer of the article you linked to: [this video]
Recommends GruppeC956 · 2013-07 · Hacker News · on “The Lost Art of Pickpocketing (2011)”
While I have never been a victim of pickpocketing, I have always been fascinated with the techniques & strategies involved. Attention, or lack thereof, is the key. [this video] [LINK]
Recommends pdkl95 · 2019-09 · Hacker News · on “What a new theory of attention says about consciousness”
> The brain wasn’t brightening the light on stimuli of interest; it was lowering the lights on everything else. An outstanding demonstration of this process is Apollo Robbins' "pick-pocket" act[1]. You can clearly see how he gives his subject a bunch of things to think about - his hand movements, what he's talking about, sounds, touch, etc - until it fills up the subjects attention capacity and they suddenly stop noticing everything else going on right in front of them. He basically performs a denial-of-service attack on someone's attention system until they cannot notice him take their wristwatch off. All done with a flourish for the camera, of course, which works because he's not DOSing th
Recommends dgacmu · 2026-10 · Hacker News · on “A Pickpocket's Guide to New York”
Funny that it's in the new yorker - they had a great video of Apollo Robbins about 13 years ago demonstrating some pickpocketing: [this video]