While in Santo Domingo for a music festival with a big crowd of mostly younger people, a friend of mine got his wallet pick-pocketed by an old acquaintance. Just wondering if anybody else has seen or heard of this trick: The thief approaches the person because he is an old acquaintance (where you know the face but not the name, from many years ago) and the thief yells "Hey man long time I dont see you and gives the victim a bear hug, picking him up in the air (the thief is about 28-35 years old - 6'3'' 220 lbs). After a few seconds of conversation he does the same thing again. My friend thought this was very odd but by the time he checked his back pocket, a few minutes later, the wallet and the thief was gone. He definetly has done this before. The bear hug and picking up the person in the air serves as both distraction and the method to grab the wallet out of the back pocket. My guess is that when he did it the first time he didn't get a good reach or grip on it and thus had to do it a 2nd time. Has anybody heard of this or know of a case similar? This event happened in Santo Domingo but the thief used to live in Puerto Plata or Cabarete. The thief is a white Dominican well dressed and speaks decent English.