flyboyarl

I just wanted to let everyone know that my wife and I are in Rabat and yesterday next to the Kasbah, the side facing the ocean (very touristy) we were robbed at knifepoint. We want to alert everyone abuot this. IT'S NOT AS SAFE AS THEY SAY. We have been to our share of 3rd world countries and never experienced anything like this before. Be careful when you travel in Morocco.

sf7307

Wow, I hope you're both ok!

Percy

Sorry to hear about you terrible event.

Where else have you been in Morocco?

let us know if this was a single event during your trip or if you felt unsafe in other places also.

Take Care and be careful

theheadysmiths

Can you provide some more details -- time of day, location ??? We will be in Morocco later this year...

P_M

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune adn I hope you are OK. Please tell us more.

Momliz

I hope you are OK also, and what a pain to lose your stuff. Hope they didn't get much! However, let me point out that in the many years that I have lived and traveled in the 3rd world, I never had problems. I was robbed at gunpoint downtown in a major US city.

keah05

Hi,

Rabbat, New York, London, or your little village in no-where don't mean to sound unsmpathetic but this culd happen anywhere.
Still hope your enjoying the rest of your holiday

flyboyarl

Hi all, we are now back in the states. We too realized that these things can happen anywhere, which is why we decided to continue with the trip, even though this happened on the 2nd day we were there. We just took extra precautions but it did make exploring the medinas and finding our riads a bit more nerve wracking.

So a bit more background on the incident - this was at the Kasbah in Rabat, on the backside where there is a road paralleling a cemetary facing the ocean, that goes down to the beach.
This was at 1:45pm, broad daylight, and nice sunny day. There were people walking there, just not when we decided to. We actually passed by the 2 men who sat there at the top of the hill, waiting for the right time. Once we passed them and were further down the hill, they could see that there were no one around and they came down the hill after us. They grabbed my wife and stuck a knife to her, knowing that I would pretty much hand over whatever they wanted. We lost ~$100 USD, my 2 year old cellphone, and a new $200 point and shoot camera. I was able to grab the SD card out of there before handing it over and it turns out the 2 men are actually in one of my pictures that I took. I will be contacting the US consulate there to see if this can be put into the right hands.

As for feeling unsafe, we felt that in Casablanca even before the incident. We can't really put our finger on it, but we never really felt this way in any of our travels through Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, China, nor Cambodia - even the big cities.

P_M

Thank you for coming back with more details. How horrifying it must have been to see a man treat your wife that way!! But of course you did the right thing to hand over your belongings so you both could be safe. Thank God you and your wife were not hurt, that's the most important thing.

I think it was very courageous of you to continue the trip, a lot of people would not.

keah05

Hi flyboyarl,
Hope I didn't sound as though I was making light of your experience in Rabat it must have been terrifying for you both.Just reading my post afterwards it didn't quite come across how I intended.
Let's hope your pic of one of the men pays off, I don't think I would have stayed cool enough to even think of removing the SD card.
Glad you felt able to continue with the rest of your holiday.

Elainee

One more example of carrying as little as possible when touring. I hope you did not lose your passports (does not sounds as if you were carrying them). Money for the day, one credit card, and camera. I would hate to lose my camera!! So smart you took out the card. We have been Morocco four times and no problems, but one never knows. Terrible experience!!

flyboyarl

That's the most annoying thing was we had nothing on us. I wasn't even wearing a backpack, my camera was small enough to fit inside my pocket, and the guidebook was in a black plastic bag. Our passports and majority of our money was in my money belt. We saw plenty of more appealing targets, people with huge nice SLRs slung around their necks, big backpacks full of goodies, women with nice purses and fancy clothes - so really not sure why we were targeted, except it was just purely a case of wrong place wrong time.

P_M

I can see how it's frustrating when you take all the necessary precautions and you are still a victim. But look at it this way--it's because you took all those great precautions that you didn't lose a lot more. I'm sure the thief was very disappointed he got so little. I know that's not a great comfort right now but I hope it gives you some satisfaction to know your material losses were minimal due to your caution.

markwillenbrock

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience.

Did you contact the police? Some clients of mine recently 'lost' their passports and cash; they recovered both very quickly with help from the police.

thursdaysd

I'm so sorry to hear about this! I was in Rabat in November, and know exactly where you were attacked. How scary! Oddly, I felt as safe, or safer, in Rabat than anywhere else in Morocco, so you just don't know.

flyboyarl

Yes we did file a police report, and that was an adventure in itself. Immediately after it happened, we went to the police post right inside the Kasbah walls, but no one was there. Went to another, same thing. we finally went to a hotel where there were plain clothes police, and they directed us to the wrong police station - it was apparently the wrong "district", and 2 stops later, we finally ended up at the correct station. This was 2 hours later.

And I agree with thursdaysd, coming from Casablanca, Rabat did feel much safer.