Mimar

This is why travelers wear money belts. With their passports, credit/ATM cards, and tickets.

Brazilnut

Bamababe,

Something similar happened to me in ROme, except that they were adolescent girls and I caught on to what was happening before they could take anything from my handbag (I messenger type bag). I made a big scandal, yelled like mad, and they ran away...

ShelliDawn

<<
I hate to break it to you but for quite a while this kind of scam was also quite common in FL
...
This received so much publicity at the time that I can;t image there is anyone who didn;t hear about it.
>>

First, I'm not American as I'm sure a number of other posters on this are not either. So, my newspapers and television news didn't run this particular story. But even if I was, there's a huge possibility that I wouldn't have caught this story.

I'm glad you've never been a victim of crime travelling, and I hope you never are. But it can happen to anyone, including yourself and if it does, I also hope no one makes a comment to you such as you have made on this thread.

nanabee

it's like being a victim twice

sarge56

hx88,

I'm sure you can tell that the majority of us are happy that you are ok and glad that you shared the incident with us, for it shows your concern for us, too.

I was the victim of a carjacking 20 years ago and, to this day, I am very aware of everything going on around me...at all times. I reckon' this comes in handy when traveling. I've (knock wood) never been victimized while traveling. I do agree that passports, especially, should never be off of your person. They now make under-clothing pieces to hold your passport. Mine will not leave my body on my trip to Europe in October. Money and credit cards will also be concealed under my clothing...not in any message bag or purse or pocket. If they make off with my guidebook, fine. That will be about the only thing not concealed.

Glad you and family ok. The silver lining is that you have learned something from this, and I'm betting will be a much harder target in the future.

marginal_margiela

nytraveler, you are such an ass. I bet you would tell a rape victim that it was her fault because she was wearing "provacative" clothing. You are just so sophisticated and Einsteins-smart that no one could ever scam you, right?

Maybe you should be Hilary Clinton's campaign manager.

nanabee

"maybe you should be Hillary Clinton's campaign manager" ?? OUCH! that was even worse!!

lovesroses

hx88,
I want to thank you for posting your warning to us. I too, am glad you were not physically harmed! I agree that we all have to be vigilant, but any of us could let our guard down for just a split second and then it's too late! (I am an American, living in the midwest, read the paper daily, listen to the news and I knew nothing of the problem in FL either!!) Thanks again!

greg

hx88, kfusto, bamabebe,

Thank you for posting your experiences. What the follow-on postings show is that being "aware" is not always sufficient to protect one from being robbed. You might know about few types of attacks, but not the variations of mentioned attacks or other attacks yet mentioned.

There are certainly many who have not (yet) been robbed: either by being "aware" or plain lucky. There are things called money belt that relieve people from having to learn about various pickpocket schemes or having to be "aware" at all time. The thieves know how to distract people, even the natives.

My in-laws are anti-moneybelt travelers. They think money belts are for dorks clueless about surroundings. Where do they keep their passports and the wallet? In a day bag that they leave on restaurant floors!

Shadow

hx88....I too am sorry for what you went though and also appreciate very much your telling us and giving us all warning. Sorry that some folks here have no compassion...they must be clueless.
Shadow

GSteed

Almost five million US tourists visited Europe last May. Does anyone know how many were mugged, robbed or assaulted?

European tourist authorities refuse to take steps to eliminate these nuisances.

I have been told that the police are in business with these operators.

Shortly...cameras will be in place. London already has them. Maybe this 'business' will be eliminated.

Rd

I have heard about a similar scam in Italy. As anyone who has ever driven in Italy will know all the main highways are toll roads. The way it works is this, while you are queuing to pay the toll fee, someone casually walks up to your vehicle and punctures the back tyre with a very thin spike. This causes a slow puncture which the driver only notices once he/she has paid and travelled a distance from the toll offices etc. While changing the wheel the back of the vehicle is usually open or you would have had to unpack luggage etc to get to the spare. That's when two people on a scooter come along and grab something. We now keep a careful eye on out surroundings while waiting to pay.

hx88

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Though the loss is substantial (close to 2K USD), I did not blame ourselves for handling the situation as that's an ordinary people would do. We are also thankful this happened at the end of our trip which was a very pleasant journey otherwise. Most importantly none of us was harmed. I have no doubt such well organized gangs are armed to some degree. If C had not succeeded in getting our attentions away, they might have come to offer "help" and some forms of physical contact would have happened.

ira

Hi H,

Well, you were certainly set on by a gang.
Thanks for reporting.

Alan, your link has no date. Was it posted after the OP had left for Italy?

Also, it is a warning from the British Embassy in Madrid, not Milan.

Finally, would you please use www.tinyurl.com to reduce the size of long URLs so that they don't mess up the formatting?

Holly_uncasdewar

Bravo, John G!

lindam

Don't beat yourself up over this!! I think many of us on holiday perhaps are not inclined to be as on top of things as we are in our "real lives". We are only human!

A couple of weeks ago in Venice, our traveling companions were waiting for their luggage at the airport. One had her carryon on the floor, between her and another. It took just a second for someone to take it.

Also last summer (in Nice), we were told that a moneybelt wasn't safe, either!! Crooks look for a bulge and are able to cut it off!!

We ended up using a pouch attached with 2 straps to the leg!!

I teach in inner city Detroit. At least they don't rob at gunpoint overseas (or at least not as often!)

Nlingenfel

Thanks for the post. I drive in Europe and all this items are important to me.

nytraveler

Sorry to all who missed it -

But the situation is FL was several years ago - and it was all over the press - not only in the US - but across europe - since those murdered/attacked were from several different european countries (UK, Germany and at least one other as I recall). And authorities in FL were horrified, since it was actually cutting down measurably on tourism from europe.

Apparently they have solved the problem if the Miami car rental offices are no longer handing out the flyers. But this was a major story all over the newspapers and TV (even outside the US - I saw it on BBC America) for at least a couple of months.

In any case - if anyone saw it or not doesn;t change the basic rules of safe travel - which seem obvious to me (as I outlined) but of which a lot of other people, I guess, are not aware.

And as noted, many police departments publicize the no-stopping if accosted rule - at least in the US - not just for travelers, but for anybody. Again, it's just common sense.

And no - I would never claim it's the fault of a rape victim that she is raped. But, if a young woman goes into a bar and drinks until she can;t stand up and goes off and uses drugs with people she has never seen before - she MUST realize that she is engaging in very risky behavior. The criminals are still criminals. And they have absolutely no right to do what they do. But - realizing there are criminals in the world, one must try to use common sense to protect oneself - by not doing things that are unnecessarily risky.

nytraveler

Also- I'm sorry if my comments seem to be unsympathetic. But there are so many people who post on this board with generalizations of how awful and dangerous travel in europe is (based on one instance - often, although not always, dueat least in part to their own carelessness or lack of awareness) that there are many americans convinced europe is a hotbed of crime.

Naturaly there is crime in europe. And there are bad areas to be avoided.

But - almost all of europe is by far safer than the US - and stories such as beware of being robbed in Milan make it sound like there are armed bandits on every street corner.

There are parts of the world where crime is rife - but most of europe simple doesn;t qualify. And while individuals may have unpleasant experiences - I don't think that should be used to denigrate entire cities - or countries.

lincasanova

i tend to feel that one must be MORE on your guard here in europe in unsuspecting places than in the USA.

I have not encountered visiting anyone in the USA who has told me to be so careful with my belongings because several of their recent clients/guests have been robbed.

i, however, warn every person i meet of this possibility, although, i myself, have not been a victim here YET.

perhaps i have unconsciously LEARNED to protect myself without wearing a money belt, etc. during my routine life. people who live and work here do not wear money belts and pouches to work and study everyday, but we are careful. Those who aren´t, pay the consequences, very quickly.

But one cannot ignore the fact that more tourists are targeted than locals, although they are not immune to these parasites.

so... i am sure there are places in the USA where you are always looking over your shoulder.. but frankly.. or you learn to do that travelling in europe´s large cities and be suspicious of ANY unusual bumping, arguing, distraction, question initiation, playfullness.. flattering remarks, frightening episodes, etc... or you may be a victim.

i feel it is of great service to travellers to be made aware of some of the true possible situations that can affect their trip in the most unpleasant way, so they can, hopefully, take one more step towards protecting themselves from the TOO MANY delinquents endlessly roaming the areas we find most attractive.

there are, of course, dangerous situations in many countries.. USA included, and i am always grateful when informed of recent crime on certain train lines,etc. so i can make my own decisions accordingly, which is all we can do.

without the information, we are ignorant.