Follow up question to the engagement ring thread
 

I read over the engagement ring thread and put in my $.02. However, I can't stop thinking about one person's comment...that they were afraid someone would cut off their finger for a ring. Now, I am sure a desperate enough individiual will do pretty much anything...we certainly see that in the US in terms of crime (hitting 100 year old ladies in the face to get their purse, for instance) but this cannot be a common occurence. I certainly have never, ever heard of anyone's finger cut off in a major tourist destination. Am I being naive or are people just taken with the urban myths of crime against tourists? Does this stuff really happen? I have travelled to every continent save Antartica and have never, ever had a problem except someone trying to grab my purse in the Prado...fortunately, I realized what was happening and pushed the drugged out looking young girl away before she took anything.

What is the real scoop?

Taitai

Hi T,

I have not yet come across a first-person account of such a thing.

((I))

PS,

It's much easier to hack off the whole hand.

let's put it this way - anyone intent on stealing something and getting away with it wants to do it quick and on the sly, with very little trouble and attention.

Cutting a finger or even a hand would take time; and if the victim is reacting badly with pain, will probably scream out and attract too much attention.

It would have to be one heck of a stone for someone to go that far. Instead it's just easier to look for easy targets that they can sneak by.

Never heard of this either,

BUT...here in Maidenhead, there was a recent trial over a gardening dispute between two neighbor women, both certainly old enough to know better. Things got out of hand, literally, when one of them bit off the other's finger.

I almost hate to post this since I started the original engagement ring thread...and before I do, let me say that this is NOT the reason I would not travel with my ring!!!

However, a good friend of mine did work with a woman (in Atlanta) whose finger was cut off for her ring. Evidently the guy came up, slammed her hand against the car, and took what he wanted. This is the ONLY time I have ever heard of this really happening...and I am sure the odds are more likely that one would be attacked by a shark, struck by lightening, or win the lotto.

I guess some people are crazy enough (or desperate enough) to do things like this...thankfully they don't make up the majority! (I am going to leave my ring at home because I worry that I will leave it somewhere when I wash my hands or go to sleep...not because of this awful story!)

I think that in the vast majority of places where people vacation, this sort of thing is a very very minute possibility. In more dangerous areas, where people are truely desperate, it is probably a larger possibily - as is kidnapping for ransom and other terrible things. I don't think that the majority of us have to worry about getting a finger cut off though. That is pretty extreme.

I hate to think what would happen if someone really wanted your scarf or tie! The mind boggles.

....or your nose ring.....

I think that is a slight exaggeration of a possibility, but certainly people can be "mugged" for money or jewelry, so does that make you feel any better? If you are just beat up or shot but don't have your finger cut off? Thieves can and do use physical force against people when stealing things, sometimes even when they don't have to. I remember one post from a guy on here who was beat up right on the Champs-Elysees by thieves stealing something.

I don't personally understand why women feel the need to wear any particular item of jewelry when traveling, it completely escapes me, or that they think they can't appear in public without some ring on their finger as if they can't exist without it.

I thought it had to be somewhat of an urban myth...kinda like the person who wakes up in the bathtub full of ice with no kidney....but just wanted to check. Maybe this stuff is happening but I am too pollyanna to recognize it. Glad to hear it is not.

In terms of jewelry...people get mugged for sneakers and iPods and lots of things significantly less expensive and sentimental. So, unless one chooses to dress like a hobo or go au natural, I guess we all have to draw our own line as to what risks we are willing to take.

Thanks for the reassurance.

Happy travels.

taitai

There are crazy people everywhere; here in Belgium in the past year a boy was killed for his Ipod (in a busy train station in Brussels), another was killed over a cigarette (in Oostende). If you worried about all of this you would never get anywhere.

I've already gone through two engagement rings, both of which were lost at home...once when my husband accidentally threw it out in the trash, the second when it fell down a hole in the floorboards of our English cottage and was never seen again. But I've never had any problems with jewelry while traveling, so I guess my jewelry is safer on the road than at home. Things can happen anywhere.