What would you do?

One of the top things I like about my apartment is location. As the saying goes, "Location is everything." Basically I am in the middle of the city... right smack in the middle. It is nice because I am close to the subway station and many of the big sights of Shanghai. However, with every good thing there is always a twist, something that makes it not so good. So here is mine: since it is in the middle of everything there are tons of people all the time. I am convinced I have to cross the busiest corner in the world everyday to get to my apartment. There is always people and lots of people in big cities brings pick pocketers. I had been warned about a month ago to "be careful of my belongings" on my street. I will admit that I did catch some guys trying to pick pocket me but I heard my backpack get unzipped and turned around. Anyways, they left. I was a bit pissed because there were people watching this whole thing go down and no on said anything. I was relieved that I caught them. I have learned my lesson and now I tie my zippers on my backpack.

Anyways, today as I was coming home I saw a guy opening a lady's bag as I walked by so I touched her on the shoulder so she would turn around and see them. Well, she did. She at first gave me a look which said, "Why the heck did you just hit my shoulder?" until she realized that a guy was trying to get into her backpack. Well, the guy (and his friends I didn't see) then looked at me and I was like ,"Shit, this might not be good." I kind of gave them an innocent look and said, "Sorry" (in Chinese and English) and just prayed and thought good thoughts that they wouldn't do anything. They pretty much all split and just gave me a mean look. I was told previously (when I got the warning) what the pick pocketers look like (they come from a certain part of China) and they totally fit the description I was forewarned about and I swear one of the guys was one of the guys who tried to get in my backpack.

Basically nothing happened. The girl said thank you from afar and I just kept walking and knew I did the right thing. It was one of those situations that I just couldn't watch someone get pick pocketed, but then again what do you in that situation especially because I thought it was just one guy, not a group of like 6?

So what would you do? Would you try to stop it and say something or tap the person's shoulder or would you keep walking?

Moral of the story: when walking on Fuzhou Lu in Shanghai watch your bag and if you have a backpack make sure the zippers aren't able to get opened easily.