As long as the lady’s handbag has a sling than can be grasped, it is always fair game for the snatch. (The other items would be the purse or handphone placed on the table or even necklace). It is not only when one is walking by the road – often they are bold enough to attempt it at the outdoor terraces of some restaurant or eatery next to the road where the getaway motorcycle is on the standby to scuttle off with its pillion after the snatch. When the lady is seated down with her hands occupied in handling fork and spoon or chop sticks, her hands could not be clutching the handbag at the same time. Or sometimes they even come forward in pretext of asking for street directions to snatch the hand bag.

One has to be very careful when walking on the road or seated down eating or drinking in a place on pavement near the road in whatever the place, whether market place, the night market, shopping complexes or restaurants : the road or proximity to it is the key requisite for a snatch. The presence of others is not so much a deterrent. They seem unworried of being identified. In fact they may even prefer crowded spots as it is difficult for victims to identify them. Especially when victims are in a state of shock and confused under a high stress.

This is obvious because the snatch thief has to rely on an accomplice’s car or motorbike waiting on the road to effect a quick getaway. He cannot afford using his legs to run especially when there are people all around who may give chase and apprehend him.

Snatch thieves have weighed the costs and benefits of their venture. They are brazen as even if you could remember their faces, what are the chances their mug shots will be at the polis balai for your identification? The police also have no time to entertain a detailed investigation. They’ll just ask you to go through the rigmarole of making the report. When you make a report you will likely find so many crowding around lining up at the police station to also make reports (such is the scourge of rising crime in the cities especially of KL & Johore Bharu). Some of these are more serious – like for eg. daylike robbery with guns and others the victim injured by knives parangs or raped and so on.

There are just that number of uniformed or plains clothes policemen around on the streets, limited by man power. Neither are there so many CCTVs on the streets to deter. I assume snatch theives are often from lower economic class and minority backgrounds (and even foreigners). Their basic needs, especially having access to educational and employment opportunities, are perceived thwarted. Many of them are youths from broken homes and have problems of alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence. I guess the problem will not be ameliorated unless the root socio-economic causes are confronted and tackled by those in power. But how to so when those belonging to higher economic classes and have power are themselves leveraging their political connections and power to ‘snatch’ from the Rakyat’s public coffers in millions to billions? :)
They are brazen because

//My take is that the robbers were not as much bold as being considerate and careful// -TheWrathOfGrapes.

Yes it appears that they are covering the risks, just in case they were caught, not to be charged with murder or grievous hurt in case the victim fell and injured herself severely or died which was not intended. But in a sense the criminals were also at the same tiome “bold”. Such a “slow” snatch, if I may use the term, increased proprtionately the risks of 3rd party intervention to foil the snatch as well as maximise chances of them being identified by both victim and others, which the robbers boldly discounted.