• Agence France-Presse, Monday, August 24, 2009 10:47 AM

Whither American marketing ingenuity? How did we let the Brits come up with the idea of "put-pocketing" -- the act of actually slipping money into people's pockets in busy tourist areas - on behalf of a client (in this case, mobile phone operator TalkTalk).

A video shows two men carefully placing banknotes into the pockets and bags of unsuspecting passers-by.

London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), however, doesn't think the idea of recruiting about 20 reformed pickpockets to recirculate the equivalent of about $200,000 is such a good idea. "This kind of thing would not be approved by the MPS because it could lead to misunderstandings and confrontations and it might lead to a form of cover for actual pick-pocketing," says a spokesman.

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