Police chief pickpocketed

OSLO, Norway -- A police campaign to crack down on pickpockets has come too late to help the capital's top crime fighter.

Police Chief Anstein Gjengedal's wallet was snatched by a pickpocket as the campaign was set to begin, the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet reported Friday.

The police chief was on the Oslo airport train Monday when a group of people jostled him. When he checked a few minutes later, his wallet was gone.

"I didn't have much money with me," he was quoted as saying. "But it still wasn't very nice."

Gjengedal said he had followed police advice by having the wallet in the inner pocket of his jacket, but the thieves got it anyway.

According to Dagbladet, Gjengedal's deputy -- Bjoern Aage Hansen -- wasn't aware of the theft when he announced the "Safe Summer" campaign later in the week, vowing that "we will have a special focus on pickpockets."