Is there a way to talk about a robber like this?
In Swedish there is a metonym for robber: "rånarhand", lit "robbers's hand". And you could use it as: "not safe from robber's hand"
Is there a similar expression in English? I've tried to google it but I can only find people chopping off burglars' hands ...
[Keeping one's laptop etc] safe from thieving hands
is idiomatic if a little dated nowadays.
A typical example is Keeping your laptop safe from thieving hands is often a difficult task ... [National Home Security Month]
A related slang phrase is five-finger discount, which is defined by Oxford English Dictionaries, Dictionary.com, The Free Dictionary, Urban Dictionary, Wiktionary, and Online Slang Dictionary as “stealing” or “shoplifting” (i.e., stealing from a store).
I recall learning this term as meaning, specifically, theft committed by employee(s) of the store, but I guess that was a misunderstanding; I don’t see that nuance in any of the definitions.
Also, Wiktionary refers to sticky fingers and defines it as “an inclination to steal” or “a petty thief or petty thieves.”
