Hiding purses and mobile phones in lunch pails was one of 163 suggestions from the general public on how to combat pickpocketing sent to the Beijing police over the past five days.

Dec. 17, the Beijing police launched a public drive to invite people to suggest how to prevent themselves being pickpocketed on public buses.

Wei Shiying, a 74-year-old man, sent in a three-page letter to introduce three types of pickpockets and two hints on how to guard against them. Yang Jun, of southern Shenzhen City, championed all the suggestion givers by offering 25 measures in a single e-mail.

Tong Jiawei, from south Guangdong Province, offered nine suggestions in this regard. Two of them were illustrated in details to show how to tailor special pockets that make pickpocketing difficult.

An overseas Chinese residing in Australia introduced the measures people in Australia take.

Zhang Jie, who works in the IT industry, suggested that the police should open a hotline service for people to send in reports on pickpocketing cases, which the police agreed is a convenient, fast and safe method for passengers to call the police for help.

The police said pickpocketing is common on buses, as Beijing's public transportation is expanding quickly to meet the rapid rate of urbanization.

(People's Daily December 24, 2003)