Unexpected Pleasantness

Ladies and gentlemen and the rest of you, I'm sure you've been victimized, been wary of, or at least heard of pickpockets. They're the whole reason people buy those strange wallets that hang around your neck and make you look like you have a misplaced colostomy bag. They drive ordinarily sane tourists to behave like paranoid schizophrenics when they visit major landmarks. But have you ever heard of a putpocket?

According to Reuters, there's an advertising campaign going on until the end of August by the UK broadband service provider TalkTalk that is hiring former pickpockets to actually put money into strangers pockets in public areas of London. Yep, they're giving away 100,000 pounds in 5 to 20 pound increments in places like Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square. The putpockets will be menacing open bags and easy access pockets with free cash.

From Reuters:

The initiative, which runs until the end of August in London before being rolled out countrywide, is being funded by a broadbrand provider, which says it wants to brighten up people's lives in unusual ways.

"It feels good to give something back for a change -- and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate," said Chris Fitch, a former pickpocket who now heads TalkTalk's putpocketing initiative.

"Every time I put money back in someone's pocket, I feel less guilty about the fact I spent many years taking it out."

I still wouldn't leave my belongings open, hoping for a marauding putpocket if I were in any of those places. The unreformed pickpockets are still out there. Of course I wouldn't buy one of those neck wallet things either.