Comments on: Being robbed on the road

By: David

David — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:56:31 +0000

Having items stolen while traveling is not a pleasant experience. While this does not seem to be a rampant problem, travelers need to make sure their most valuable items are protected such as their passports, car keys (for when they get back home) wallets, credit cards, and camera memory cards.

Here are a few ideas:

Consider travel bags with security zippers to slick fingered thieves can’t get their hands inside. Several manufactures of travel bags and purses (for both men and women) have begun builidng in anti-theft features into their bags. Features such as security zippers to keep out pickpockets, steel wire mounted inside bag straps (so they can’t be cut from behind), detachable straps (so you can quickly detach the strap from one end and secure it to the back of your chair to prevent quick snatch and grab thefts), to anti-slashing panels to keep bag slashers at bay.

Here are several travel bags and purses that have these features – many of these also have videos showing how they work. Go to:
http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/catalog/security-travel-handbags-c-22.html

While these types of theft are not super common, they do happen, especially in heavy tourist areas in Europe. Here are a few additional ideas that may help.

Learn how pickpocket operate. Watch several of the videos on this webpage that will show actual crime videos of pickpockets in action. Why not learn from someone else’s mistakes. when you go to this website, go to the pickpocket sections. Here is the link:
http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/safety-tips/

Hope these ideas work!

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:31:57 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Travel_Tweet: Being robbed on the road: Savvy travelers are supposed to know what to do, and what not to do, in order to avoid b… http://bit.ly/c4mB5y...

By: MeanMeosh

MeanMeosh — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:22:29 +0000

Never been robbed per se, but my wife and I did fall victim to the old fake accident scam while we were living in India. In this variation, a village local spots what appears to be either a foreigner or a wealthy city person, then runs in front of the vehicle so they’ll get hit. My driver was behind the wheel, and we were immediately surrounded by 150 villagers, who proceeded to forcibly pull my driver out of the car. We were eventually shaken down for the equivalent of about $200 in exchange for being able to go home. Scared the devil out of us, but thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt. We probably would have had to pay a lot more, except they didn’t realize we were foreigners. We’re both of Indian descent, and kept our mouths shut the whole time.

After that, we never attempted to tour around India without either being accompanied by a relative, or having a reputable travel agent put together a package tour for us, with their own car and driver included.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:44:05 +0000

Travel/vacation crimes and murders get instant headlines in local news.
Statistics probably show the relative safety of travel in foreign locations (where extra caution is judicious) compared to your own home town (where familiarity leads to careless actions). Use your head to set the caution level when in a new vacation spot. But, don’t be paranoid.

By: cherie

cherie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:43:21 +0000

We were driving from London to Winchester, England; stopped to have lunch. Had to park in a garage sign posted (video security). Thieves openned car boot, took off with all our luggage. Friends spent July 4th weekend in London getting new passports – they packed their passports with their luggage! hAD TO BUY EVERYTHING NEW FOR 2 WEEK TRIP!

By: Polly-Vous Francais

Polly-Vous Francais — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:20:20 +0000

Thanks — good advice all around. I never had any problem in Paris once I learned to avoid the Chatelet metro station and stopped taking the RER in from CDG. And ignoring all manner of gypsies, especially the “Do you speak English?” girls at the Tuileries.

So I was caught off guard when in Barcelona: as we were passing under a tree, our heads and shoulders were splattered with what appeared to be bird poop from on high. Long story short: if this happens, don’t let a “good Samaritan” help you clean it off with water. It’s a scam and they are going for the gentleman’s wallet in his jacket pocket. (My friend had an LLBean zippered inner pocket in his blazer, which foiled our robber!) But it did require a shampoo and dry cleaning to clean off the smelly stuff. We were lucky.

By: Angela K. Nickerson

Angela K. Nickerson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:25:52 +0000

I’ve been robbed twice while traveling. Once I was sick and someone lifted my suitcase from me. The second time I entrusted my backpack to someone else who wasn’t vigilant. It is the worst feeling — terrible. But in the end it is only stuff. And I’ve never lost my documents, fortunately. Sadly, I think it is just part of the travel experience at some point.

By: sue

sue — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:15:50 +0000

While of course these are good suggestions, I have to say, that as someone who has lived her entire adult life in New York City, your story about the gold chain on the subway was over the top, unless you were venturing into the hot tourist destination of Brownsville late at night. Traveling on the subway to most mainstream destinations between 7am and midnight will not generally endanger your jewelry, whether its expensive or not.

By: Tweets that mention Being robbed on the road -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Being robbed on the road -- Topsy.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:58:18 +0000

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