The pickpocket experiment

[Travelcat2]

Nowadays, La Rambla is the safest place in Barcelona because is full of police. Be aware in other places

 

Not sure when "nowadays" is. Wish what you said is true...... but the problems exist now. Even with police presence (which I looked for and did not see), it will take time for Barcelona to get off Top 10 list. Hope it does happen as La Rambla is a great idea.

[mskaufman]

We saw a fair number of police last week. But, it is so crowded that they can't see everything.

[IowaGirl1]

Hi,

 

I'm reading this thread with interest since we will be in Barcelona in 10 days!

 

I was in Rome a few years back with my sister in law. We stayed outside the city & rode the Rome Metro to get around. I was aware that pickpockets were a problem - there were signs everywhere. I had my valuables in a small interior pocket on my skirt, but carried a small backpack that had a sweater to cover my arms in churches - nothing of real value.

 

After boarding the Rome Metro which was very crowded, I felt someone touch my backpack & I pushed back quickly & as hard as I could. A young girl squealed & laughed as she & her friends dashed off the train car just as the doors were closing. My backpack was open but nothing taken.

 

Then I heard an American woman near me say, "Why, I guess I didn't zip up my purse! Look at that!" She was totally unaware she most likely had been robbed rather recently.

 

So thanks for the advice - I'll be very careful in Barcelona & Rome in the coming weeks. I'm also currently in a wheelchair (hopefully a temporary situation!)...do you think pickpockets take pity on the disabled? I hope so! :-)

[Langley Cruisers]

Nowadays, La Rambla is the safest place in Barcelona because is full of police. Be aware in other places

 

Umm, yeah no. The police will do absolutely nothing if you report a pickpocket incident to them. They cannot be everywhere, they are simply a "presence".

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[Aplmac]

You need to read this!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18798792

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[bobalink]

You need to read this!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18798792

.

 

 

Great illustration of how quickly the pickpocketers work at robbing tourists.

[Pushka]

The staff at our hotel yesterday at Barcelona were very prompt at telling us about the need for personal security. They would know.

 

 

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[mskaufman]

Every cab driver in Barcelona also told us. They generally said that Barcelona was safe from guns and drugs but there would be "hands in your pockets".

[vivian02]

The wife and I have been on four different Mediterrean Cruises over the last eight years and once had the pigeon poop trick pulled on us in Barcelona. The last time in Rome while taking the train from Rome to the Port I had a guy come completely over to my side of the isle and bump me. The pigeon thing is a person will appear and in broken english tell you that you need to be cleaned off with water. Should this happen ignor the person and head away from the area. If you let the kind person clean off the pigeon poop he will attempt to take your wallet. (I carry a neck pouch) If a person bumps you while walking and you have a credit card in your front pocket by the time you react that credit card could be gone. I don't carry credit cards in my front pocket. While in port in Europe just play it safe and be alert. Ladies.... don't carry a purse. If you go into port with a purse you are a walking target. Just plan ahead where to keep your passport and credit cards. (Money belt or neck pouch are smart ideas). Tim

[IowaGirl1]

One time in Paris my husband & I had a very weird thing happen. We were walking in a very nice, safe area in broad daylight. A girl comes up to us with a man's gold band - looked like a wedding band. She asked if it was ours. "No," we said. Then she was very persistent, trying to give it to us. She said it didn't fit her, she didn't want it, etc. We said, "No, thanks." At some point I had it in my hand & was looking at it. It appeared to be real gold (I'm a former antique dealer who has dealt with a lot of jewelry.) And then I thought, "What am I doing - give this back to her & get out of here!" I gave it back to her & we left, but she followed us a bit, very persistent still. Finally she gave up.

 

We couldn't figure out the angle. Obviously it's some kind of scam. A fake ring that you give a "nice stranger" a reward for giving to you? Though she didn't ask for any money. We weren't robbed during the process. She was alone. Really odd.

[mijello]

I don't really care what the odds are. I had a bum bag slashed off me in Vietnam, so I do know that it happens. And that to me is the only statistic that counts. ;)

I totally agree.

We were in high alert throughout our 4 weeks in Europe - London, Paris, Malaga, Barcelona, Tangier, Florence and then our last stop, Rome. On our train ride from Rome to Civitavecchia for our cruise on Carnival Freedom, we finally relaxed and let our guard down. After all we were in the first class section of the train and thought that the pickpocketers would not be able to afford to be there. How wrong were we. We put all our backpacks on the overhead shelf and large luggage in the luggage section by the exit. We sat by the exit so we could keep our eyes on our luggage. That was the other mistake we made. We made it easy for the thieves (a team of 3) to target us. One acted as a lookout and informer, another distracted us by leaning over us and shoving a map infront of us, and the third one just grabbed our backpack above us and ran off as our train was stopping at the one and only stop between Rome and Civitavecchia. We lost all our precious Vatican stamps, Swiss Army knife, cruise tickets with all our credit card information on them, my sons' watches and some loose coins. Although we didn't loose our credit card, we still had to take time out to report to our credit card company and had it cancelled.

We will be back to some of these European countries this fall and we intend to be that much more smarter and not be victims anymore.

[Stelladoro]

We recently visited Barcelona for a fourth time without any incident. Unfortunately, our friends were not so lucky. They just completed a land tour of Spain and were waiting for a train in Barcelona to Paris. My friend always wears her small across body bag, but during a careless moment, she took of her bag and rested it next to her on the bench at the train station. Well, it disappeared in a split second! Gone was her camera, a small amount of cash, CC card and Passport! Needless to say, their overnight train ride to Paris was not exactly restful. They were able to obtain a temp. Passport in Paris for around $170. While all her pictures were lost, luckily, they still have pictures of their trip taken by her husband on his camera.

[iancal]

Why bother with a pickpocket experiment??

 

Seems rather pointless to me.

 

Experiment or not, the chances are very good that you will be pickpocketed in Barcelona if you are not careful, have a backpack, or make a bid deal of pulling out money and credit cards in public (some people seem like to do this, all the while speaking in a loud voice so that everyone knows that they are tourists).

[Got2Cruise]

We learned about the pickpockets in Rome in Barcelona from the tourguides, natives of those two cities. They warned us. They also made it clear that the pickpockets were not citizens of those cities. Why would they go out of their way, sometimes even announcing to look out if it wasn't an issue.

 

Also, one of our fellow roll call members was scammed in Barcelona before the cruise, put a damper on his entire vacation.

 

Better safe than sorry, I say, but to each their own.

[mskaufman]

We recently visited Barcelona for a fourth time without any incident. Unfortunately, our friends were not so lucky. They just completed a land tour of Spain and were waiting for a train in Barcelona to Paris. My friend always wears her small across body bag, but during a careless moment, she took of her bag and rested it next to her on the bench at the train station. Well, it disappeared in a split second! Gone was her camera, a small amount of cash, CC card and Passport! Needless to say, their overnight train ride to Paris was not exactly restful. They were able to obtain a temp. Passport in Paris for around $170. While all her pictures were lost, luckily, they still have pictures of their trip taken by her husband on his camera.

 

One of the things I did on our recent trip was to change cards in the camera every two days. Luckily it didn't happen but if we lost a camera it limited the number of pictures that were lost with it.

[Lambo62]

Why bother with a pickpocket experiment??

 

Seems rather pointless to me.

 

Experiment or not, the chances are very good that you will be pickpocketed in Barcelona if you are not careful, have a backpack, or make a bid deal of pulling out money and credit cards in public (some people seem like to do this, all the while speaking in a loud voice so that everyone knows that they are tourists).

 

Perhaps it was pointless, I guess the reason I thought i would try is because i was instilled with fear from reading posts on this board. Which was a good thing i guess, because it made me cautious with the real wallet (one credit card and a little cash in a neck wallet each day). I actually lost sleep before our cruise after reading so many scarey posts that I was rethinking our decision to go to theses cities. I wanted to "experiment" and to post that it isn't as scarey out there as "some" people post on here. Yes, caution is necessary with all the precautions recommended on here. But vacations are to be enjoyed and I thought i could give some people some peace of mind thats all :)

[Pushka]

We've now returned from Europe. In Paris it was the gypsy gold ring and petition scam. In Barcelona there were numerous things happening. Certainly lots of opportunities for grabbing unattended bags and wallets. Many people were wearing their backpacks in front. Three times at cafes we were told by the owners that the area was notorious for bag snatches and to be vigilant.

Yes we were careful but this certainly didn't have any impact on the enjoyment of these places.

 

 

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[MawganTr]

If you are interested in pick pocketing issues google 'Bob Arno' he was a speaker on our QV cruise last week. He is a leading expert on the issues and works with many police forces to help with crime prevention. He was very interesting.

 

 

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