Update: July 31st 2025 - Added missing honor bar
INTRODUCTION
This guide aims to cover most of everything related to Pickpocketing, the 5th crime in Torn's Crimes 2.0 Early Access.
Finally, the much delayed 5th crime is here, and against all odds, it blew my expectations away ('cept for the lack of income, that much was entirely expected).

If you already know the basics just skip ahead, I'll try and keep everything organized for clarity's sake.
If you're just looking for advice on this crime, skip to the "Points Of Interest" section.


This is the seventh of my series of guides on Crimes 2.0, my other guides being
[Crimes 2.0] Search For Cash: An in-depth guide
[Crimes 2.0] Bootlegging: An in-depth guide
[Crimes 2.0] Graffiti: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Shoplifting: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Card Skimming: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Burglary: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Hustling: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Disposal: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Cracking: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Forgery: An In-Depth Guide
[Crimes 2.0] Scamming: An In-Depth Guide

[Crimes 2.0] Arson: An In-Depth Guide

GLOSSARY:
CS = Crime Skill, your skill at doing the crime, shown at the top of the crime page.
Unique = Unique find, marked with a star under the "ATTEMPT" button, can only be found once.
Crit = Critical failure, leads to loss of CS and sometimes items, sometimes life, sometimes prison time.
Mark = A target, this is the person you'll attempt to pickpocket.
Build = The mark's body type, like muscular or skinny and the like.


FIRST STEPS (What you need to start)
This crime is very straightforward, you just take something someone else's carrying and keep it for yourself without them realizing. For that, there's exactly one item that would be of assistance: The Cut-Throat Razor

The Cut-Throat Razor is the enhancer for this crime, it increases CE&CS gains by 5%, unlocks some outcomes and unlocks multiple uniques, being required to obtain them. It's obtainable in a number of locations as unique finds: While Shoplifting at Bits 'n' Bobs, while Burgling the Barbershop, and when Pickpocketing the Thug.


PICKPOCKETING

Every few seconds, new pickpocketing marks will appear and others will disappear. It's up to you to catch the right mark and strike when they're most vulnerable, and for this, you get some information about your unsuspecting victim. Every mark is a poor citizen of Torn, you'll get a brief description of who/what they are, how they look and what they're doing at the time, and use this information to relieve them of their valuables.

There's a total of 22 pickpocketing marks, some harder than others, some carrying more valuables than others. Each mark has a unique, and all marks are available as soon as you start this crime. That said, even if all of them are available at the start, it is ill advised to do most of them without increasing your crime skill first, for the chances of failing and thus critting increase significantly.

A detailed list of each mark will be further below, for now let's focus on the marks' general characteristics.

Marks are also global: If they can be seen by a player, everyone else can see them. There's no restrictions regarding which marks can be seen by a player, and pickpocketing a mark does not remove it for everyone else either.

THE MARKS
Who is the mark, exactly? Knowing your target will go a long way determining your chances of success.
The marks range from drunkards stumbling on the streets, to policemen patrolling or chasing a suspect. This is the most significant factor that affects your chances of success, as well as the kind of loot you can find.

Each mark has different amounts of skill gain!
For the sake of simplicity let's say lowest CS gain is 100%, and other marks get an increase to that.

Success rates are assessed at around the same skill level (chosen arbitrarily, roughly on the 20-30CS range), dubious accuracy but a decent guideline nonetheless. They also don't consider mark's status for the most part, that's further below.

Low sample size might skew the numbers, but they're mostly in the ballpark.

Safe marks (100% CS gain, ~97.5% average success rate)
- Drunk Man
- Drunk Woman
- Homeless Person
- Junkie
- Elderly Man
- Elderly Woman

These marks are extremely hard to fail, out of 200 tests only 5 fails were reported. CS gain is likewise the lowest. At early levels this is a good mark to go for.

Moderately unsafe marks (150% CS gain, ~92.5% success rate)
- Classy Lady
- Laborer
- Postal Worker
- Young Man
- Young Woman
- Student

These marks are relatively safe, and give roughly 50% more CS than safe marks, though success rates take a hit, depending on the action they can vary from 90% to 95%. Young people usually have their phones out, they're a good and extremely frequent target, highly recommended for leveling up reliably.

Unsafe marks (200% CS gain, ~85% success rate)
- Rich Kid
- Sex Worker
- Thug

These marks are fairly risky, depending on status success rate varies between 87.5% and 80%. Caution is advised, CS gain may be twice as high as safe marks, but success rate might hurt you if unprepared. Avoid marks paying attention or otherwise focused.

Risky marks (250% CS gain, ~75% success rate)
- Jogger
- Businessman
- Businesswoman
- Gang Member
- Mobster

These marks are very risky, success rates take a dip at early skill levels (anything below 30 basically), so increasing it before tackling them is ideal. CS gain is very significant, 2.5 times as much as a safe target on average. Only target marks busy or distracted.

Dangerous marks (300% CS gain, ~50% success rate)
- Cyclist

Only one in this category, and for good reason. The safe status for cyclists is extremely rare, to the point that not once have I seen a walking cyclist. Success rates are very bad, and this target should be avoided until your CS is very high.

Very dangerous marks (350% CS gain, <10% success rate)
- Police Officer

This mark gives the most CS, and is also the most likely to land you in jail. Walking they're a death sentence, and running they aren't much better honestly. Recommended to avoid until your CS is either very high or maxed. You can obtain a merit by pickpocketing them while they're running and stealing their badge.

As skill level increases, the "danger level" of marks goes down. Switching to more difficult targets once you deem the gain from your current targets insufficient would be the best way to go for increasing skill level quickly.

Simplified risk assessment


UPDATE: Someone made a script that implements these safety assessments into the actual pickpocketing page. You can find it here. Works on browser and TornPDA. Another alternative is this one.


THE STATUS
When assessing a mark, the first thing one does is check what they're doing. Are they walking around? Distracted on their phone? Maybe lotering around an area, very aware of their surroundings.
This is the second most important factor, some uniques require the mark to be a specific status, and success rates are greatly impacted by this as well.

The following table (made by peterbuch74 [2738193] on the wiki thread, props to him) is a breakdown of possible status for each mark, including window of time you get with each of them. Some may be missing, that may be more detailed further down.


While I could go into detail on how each individual status affects each mark, this can be simplified by the following rules:

1) The more oblivious the target, the easier it is to pickpocket them. Aim for targets on the phone, listening to music and the like.
2) Targets moving quickly can be either safe or unsafe, cyclist and jogger are better walking, while others like the thug are better running. Think, can you catch them and remain inconspicuous? Maybe they're tired after exercising?
3) Targets on their phone are usually a good call. The less attention they can pay to you, the better.

Going with the wrong status can lower success rates by up to 10%, if not more, so always try and go for what makes the most sense.

THE BUILD
Some people are bigger than others, some are muscular and ready to break your wrist, others are athletic and hard to catch up. In general, a target's body type can impact how likely you are to pickpocket them successfully.

There's five builds for each mark, some marks don't have them, others exclusively have them.
- Average: Bog standard, most common build.
- Athletic: Very common in joggers, cyclists and thugs.
- Skinny: More common in women.
- Muscular: More common in laborers, sex workers and others.
- Heavyset: Fairly uncommon overall, mostly seen in civilians.

The impact of the build on success rates isn't as significant as the status, but it's there. Some outcomes also require a certain status to occur, though these are few and far between. More information on success rates further below.

CRITICAL FAILURES
Crits can occur for every target, it's unknown if status has an effect though currently it doesn't seem to be the case (besides varying flavor text).
These will lead to standard crit penalties:
- Lose some life (9-1,672 logged though it could be higher)
- Go to jail (0:37hrs - 6:11hrs logged though it could be higher, average of 1:20hrs)
- Go to the hospital (5:28hrs-11:23hrs logged though it could be lower)

It is currently unknown if you can lose your Cut-Throat Razor, though it is safe to assume that you can with more dangerous marks.

CS loss depends on mark difficulty!

Just like skill gain, getting a crit with a more dangerous mark can lead to an increase in CS loss. Going for very dangerous marks early on can severely hinder your CS growth, be mindful of this.
You lose roughly ten times the expected CS gain after a crit, so a crit on a police officer removes three times as much CS as a crit on an elderly woman.

The exact outcome of a crit and its severity varies significantly according to mark, with pickpocketing civvies leading to shorter jail sentences than pickpocketing policemen.
Logged hospitalizations comes from cyclists (~5hrs) and thugs (~11hrs), making these two targets a decent option if you seek to self-hospitalize for a long period of time and don't particularly care for your crime skill.


POINTS OF INTEREST

THE UNIQUES
This crime has a total of 22 uniques, one for each mark.


All but two are obtainable at any time: The Cyclist's and the Mobster's are CS100 only.

*DISCLAIMER: The unique for the Laborer was changed with date October 22nd, from '1x Box of Medical Supplies' to '1x Megaphone'.

INCREASING SKILL LEVEL
Revised this section after the Nth time getting back-to-back crits, offering steady growth over taking unnecessary risks.
As shown previously, some targets give more CS directly than others, but the chances of failing increase as well.
Going for increasingly difficult targets the higher your CS is would be the best way to go, if avoiding crits is the goal. There's no exact measurements on when to do the switch to a riskier target, but from personal experience alone:

- Safe targets can be done all the way to CS100 if you wanna go the safest way, but it's more inefficient. Switching to the next level at CS10-20 is an option
- Moderately unsafe targets are viable at any point from CS10 and onwards. Young folk are the best in this regard with fairly high success rates and appearing regularly. Marks in this group are arguably the best for steady, constant CS growth, even while taking failures and crits into consideration.
- Unsafe targets are an idea from CS40 onwards, just make sure they're always distracted. Success rates at this point are fairly good as long as they're distracted.
- Risky targets are an option, as early as CS50 if you live on the edge but become fairly good near the CS65 mark. Expect plenty of crits if you target these ones.
- Dangerous targets (i.e. the cyclists) are an idea from CS80 and onwards. Success rates stop being extremely bad, and CS gain more than makes this a risk worth taking, plus you can sometimes get xans from them. Wait 'til CS85-90 if you wanna err on the side of caution.
- Avoid cops entirely, they give the most CS and an honor bar when you get their badge, but they're extremely risky and the CS loss from a crit is massive as well. Tests on the CS90-95 range indicate that you shouldn't try them even at this range. Consider maxing your skill first, or increasing skill a bit further.

THE MERITS
Just like all other crimes so far, this crime also has two honor bars native to it, and all the medals pertaining its category.

Reaching CS100 will grant one the Pocketeer honor bar.

Successfully pickpocketing a running cop and getting his badge will get you the Pig Rustler honor bar.

This unique is really hard to get, mostly because cops are extremely likely to give you a crit (~10% success rate). Waiting until your skill level is high enough to succeed reliably is an option.
An alternative if you don't particularly care for pickpocketing nor your CE, is spamming running poiice officers while at CS1, so you never lose CS. I wouldn't do it, but it's an option if you just want the honor bar.

Pickpocketing ten skinny individuals in a row will grand one the Slim Pickings honor bar.

Very straightforward, the build of the target needs to be Skinny. Pickpocket ten in a row successfully and you'll get it.


Finally, all attempts at this crime are considered theft crimes in regards of Theft offenses medals.
It is the same category as Search for Cash, Shoplifting and Burglary, being the fourth theft crime in 2.0.

DETAILED MARKS
DISCLAIMER: This entire sections comes from both my personal experience and the limited data available for research. Expect things here to change when enough data is collected.
Ordered by risk level.
Recommended minimum level is based on "the point at which a net skill gain is determined", while maximum level is the recommended point at which you should switch to harder targets to make CS growth more efficient.
Also the advice is quite... vague. Read further below for a more accurate representation of success rates.

SAFE MARKS (CS1-20)
Drunk Man
Unique: 6x Bottle of Beer
Statuses: Distracted - Stumbling
Builds: All
Advice: Avoid when distracted or muscular.

Drunk Woman
Unique: 2x Bottle of Pumpkin Brew
Statuses: Distracted - Stumbling
Builds: Skinny - Average - Muscular - Heavyset
Advice: Avoid when distracted.

Elderly Man
Unique: 1x Bag of Tootsie Rolls
Statuses: Walking
Builds: All
Advice: Always safe.

Elderly Woman
Unique: 1x Opium
Statuses: Walking
Builds: Skinny - Average - Muscular - Heavyset
Advice: Always safe.

Homeless Person
Unique: 4x Morphine, 1x Soap on a Rope, 3x Brick, 1x Toothbrush
Statuses: Begging - Loitering
Builds: Average - Heavyset
Advice: Avoid when loitering.

Junkie
Unique: 1x Ecstasy, 1x LSD, 1x PCP, 1x Speed
Statuses: Loitering - Stumbling
Builds: Skinny - Average - Muscular - Heavyset
Advice: Avoid when loitering or muscular.


MODERATELY UNSAFE MARKS (CS10-70)
Young Man
Unique: 1x Ketamine
Statuses: Walking - On Phone - Listening to music
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic
Advice: Always safe.

Young Woman
Unique: 1x Ecstasy
Statuses: Walking - Distracted - On Phone - Listening to music
Builds: Skinny - Average - Heavyset
Advice: Best when on phone.

Student
Unique: 1x Laptop, 1x Cannabis, 1x Coin Purse, 1x Cell Phone
Statuses: Walking - On Phone - Listening to music - Running
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic
Advice: Best when on phone - Avoid when athletic.

Classy Lady
Unique: 1x Pair of High Heels
Statuses: Walking - On Phone
Builds: Skinny - Average - Heavyset
Advice: Generally bad, best when heavyset.

Laborer
Unique: 1x Megaphone
Statuses: Walking - Distracted - On Phone
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Avoid when distracted.

Postal Worker
Unique: 1x Lottery Voucher
Statuses: Walking - Distracted
Builds: Skinny - Average
Advice: Low data - Best when walking?.


UNSAFE MARKS (CS35-90)
Rich Kid
Unique: 1x Six-Pack of Alcohol
Statuses: Walking - On Phone - Listening to music
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Heavyset
Advice: Low data - Best when walking? - Best when skinny/heavyset.

Sex Worker
Unique: 1x Thong
Statuses: Distracted - On Phone - Soliciting
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Best when on phone.

Thug
Unique: 1x PCP, 1x Cut-Throat Razor, 1x Billfold
Statuses: Walking - Loitering - Running
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Best when running - Avoid when muscular.


RISKY MARKS (CS65+)
Businessman
Unique: 2x Speed
Statuses: Walking - On Phone
Builds: All
Advice: Avoid when walking or skinny.

Businesswoman
Unique: 1x Glasses
Statuses: Walking - On Phone
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Heavyset
Advice: Low data - Avoid when heavyset? - Avoid walking.

Gang Member
Unique: 1x Spray Can : Red, 1x Spray Can : Purple, 1x Spray Can : Blue, 1x Wire Cutters
Statuses: Loitering
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Avoid when muscular.

Jogger
Unique: 1x Can of Crocozade
Statuses: Walking - Jogging
Builds: Skinny - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Best when walking.

Mobster
Unique: Money ($561,000?-$772,000?)
Statuses: Walking
Builds: Skinny - Average - Muscular - Heavyset
Advice: Avoid entirely, ideally.


DANGEROUS MARKS (CS80+)
Cyclist
Unique: 1x Mountain Bike
Statuses: Cycling
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic
Advice: Extremely good from CS80 and onwards. Can give xanax.


VERY DANGEROUS MARKS (CS95-100)
Police Officer
Unique: 1x Billfold, 1x Police Badge
Statuses: Walking - Running
Builds: Skinny - Average - Athletic - Muscular
Advice: Best to avoid, even at max skill level, success rates are very low.


THE REASONING
The recommended skill level is the point where I started seeing my success rates improve, and where the ratio of nerve spent to effective skill gain became significantly better than safer targets. This is only a "guideline" based on my own experience plus what little I could gather from limited data, make sure to use your own judgement for these ones. I left the whole source for the "advice" bits below here, at the "Mark risk breakdown" subsection, so have a look. Sample size ~8.4k.


THE NUMBERS
MARK OCCURRENCE RATE
Some marks are harder to find than others, and sometimes it's hard to find a mark with the right status.
The following is a breakdown of possible status for each mark, how often they appear and how common is each status exactly.


To note: The rarity of the status does not mean it'll be easier to pickpocket. Distracted drunkards are more dangerous than stumbling ones. Likewise, target frequency does not mean they're safer or riskier. Follow your gut or whatever was established above to determine the right targets.

MARK RISK BREAKDOWN
BY TARGET AND BUILD

Low sample size may hinder accuracy, ye be warned.

BY SKILL LEVEL

Again, low sample size may hinder accuracy. Works as a very rough outline on when to start doing certain targets.


FINAL THOUGHTS
My expectations coming into this crime were extremely low, after being spoiled so much by Burglary, and I have to say, this crime definitely surprised me.

Loot is interesting, mostly billfolds and cardholders, but these items can hold LBCs, FHCs and BCTs in them (although rarely), making them a relatively easy source of these items. The uniques are fairly lucrative as well, and being a crime that requires wayyy less nerve than burglary, I'm not complaining.

Mechanically though, this crime is amazing, a lot more fast-paced than other crimes, forcing you to make choices within very small time windows. Having to assess whether a target is good enough or you'd rather wait for another opportunity in a matter of seconds is a very interesting concept, one which I was not expecting, at all.

Seventh guide in the Crimes 2.0 Guides series, and also the shortest to date I think. This crime being very straightforward was a nice change of pace for me. I also got the chance to work with Silmaril [2665762], who had made an amazing script for burglary with many QoL features. Having him help me on data gathering for this crime made obtaining information regarding the impact of status and CS gain per target extremely easy, saving me a lot of time, and for that I'm very grateful ^_^

DATA GATHERING (DONE!)
Data gathering for this crime has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed their logs!

CREDITS
Finally, a shoutout to all who contributed in the making of this guide, as well as those who financed this and previous projects.

Providers of research funds:
kelfi: 16x Donator Pack
onlelonely: 10x FHC
MrFancyPants: $100,000,000
Maks: $100,000,000
MonChoon: 100x Xanax
Hamid448: $60,000,000, 3x E-DVDs, 1x Drug Pack, 1x Six Pack of Alcohol
Jefersonakl: 5x FHC
Gem: 25x Bottle of Moonshine
Kamkool: $50,000,000
FractalPariah: $50,000,000
BigDaddyLuvsU: $38,000,000, 3x Drug Pack
Invert: $13,000,000, 1x Xanax, 1x FHC, 20x Bottle of Mistletoe Madness
Sinvetic: $5,000,000, 2x FHC, Quran Script : Ubay Ibn Ka'b
RatstaR: 1x Donator Pack
L4suicide: 1x Donator Pack
Jackass_420: $20,000,000
Lidia: $20,000,000
illum: 1x FHC
Gandalf: 1x FHC
Skulll: 1x Drug Pack, 1x Six-Pack of Alcohol, 1x Bottle of Mistletoe Madness, 1x Bottle of Stinky Swamp Punch, 1x Can of Rockstar Rudolph, 1x Can of X-MASS
hugeknight: 10x Lottery Voucher
maimunah: $10,000,000
Paul_Atreides: $10,000,000
RipTheJacker: $800,000, 4x Can of Santa Shooters
Lexcifer: 10x Xanax
BurningWinters: 5x Six-Pack of Alcohol
something: $7,500,000
Bssteig: 1x E-DVD, 1x Can of Rockstar Rudolph, 1x Xanax, 1x Certificate of Awesome
Giovanni: 3x Six-Pack of Alcohol
MissMary: $1,000,000, 1x Drug Pack
Dr_Thycreator: 3x Can of Santa Shooters
Tuit: $5,000,000
Chimken: 1x Drug Pack
Rizzzz: $4,000,000
Dapper_Tramp: 10x Bottle of Wicked Witch
-Behemoth: 3x Xanax
Timoteo32: 1x Six-Pack of Alcohol
badmagicks: 1x High-Speed Drive
Green_Babz: 1x Can of Santa Shooters
TheBonebreaker: $1,000,000
Mr_Bendix: $1,000,000
bcla7: 1x Lottery Voucher
Anonymous: $29,000,000

Research collaborators:
Fetheryhorse6
Tuit
Bruichladdich

Scripting and materials used
Silmaril
peterbuch74
Hamid448
KRobert

All contributors:
Acarya, Darrellia, Allenone, KRobert, Trudeny, Jamas, Nyxa, Lithdren, Hamid448, Korbrm, Cerberus, acesoron, Nogok, Muckamuck, Beastof_Birding, the people of Omni and HeLa, the torn.report team, and the people on the wiki thread for Pickpocketing, as well as everyone who I might've missed. My apologies in advance.

All in the name of science.