French Thievery, Be Careful!
 

Apparently auto break-ins and content theft is rampant in southern France. On 5/16/02 in route from Nice to Arles, we stopped in Aix for some picture taking and lunch. While so occupied, our car was broken into and we were relieved of all our belongings. Although our car was rented in Barcelona, with Spainish tags, making us a particularly brilliant target, we subsequently learned from the police that this is a very common problem in general. We additionally learned that the last two digits of the French tags identify the town in which you live, so that even the locals must be cautious when visiting a neighboring town. <BR><BR>

I am sorry for your loss, but my car was broken into and we were robbed while we slept at a Fairfield Inn along I-75 in Georgia. What is your point? We must all stay at home and not travel?

OK, to recap, when renting a vehicle in the South of France or any other suspect areas: <BR><BR>1. Get rid of any evidence that the car is a rental, like stickers on the rear windshield. Replace the rental sticker with a local sticker - you can buy it at any maison de la presse - that advertises the local soccer team or whatever.<BR><BR>2. Buy a local newspaper and a baguette and place them on that flap that is under the rear window of the car.<BR><BR>3. Don't leave ANYTHING in the car exposed to view that would indicate you're a tourist - like a map or binoculars or a camera or a tour guide. Instead, leave stuff like a grocery bag from the local Casino or stuff from a local market.<BR><BR>4. Don't park in WAY out-of-the-way places. Lock the car. <BR><BR>5. Don't dress like American tourists (if I see you walking away from your car in a pink jogging suit I'll know who you are). Another reason to "blend in"<BR><BR>The last two digits of a French license identify the d&eacute;partement which it came from. Used to be that 51 marked almost all cars as rentals because someone in the 51 d&eacute;partement had a monopoly on French rental cars, but that hasn't been true for years. Still, if the last two numerals on your car don't match those of the d&eacute;partement in which you rent the car, you will be easily identified as an "outsider." <BR><BR>Soi sage!<BR><BR>

Does anyone have any ideas for how to disguise a leased car (Renault or Peugeot. They always have a RED license plate which everyone knows about! Auto Europe says they recognize it is a problem and have complained to the government but gotten nowhere. They caution you not to leave anything in the car! But what can you do when you go in to lunch, or a chateau or such, when traveling around.

Car break-ins have been a developing problem in the south for a couple of years now.<BR><BR>The best giveaway that the car is a rental - now that they aren't all registered in "51", is the "F" sticker that is put on the back of the car.<BR>Remove it... it usually just peels off.<BR>We haven't been required to have country ID stickers on our cars for years, so it's pretty much a signal to thieves. I've rarely seen a rental company sticker on their cars.<BR><BR>Also - always lock your doors while driving through cities, especially on the Riviera. Young kids on mopeds or motorcyles often drive up alongside, one jumps off and opens the door - grabbing anything they can. <BR><BR>And not only tourists are targeted... it's happened to locals I know here in Arles. <BR>PB

a) Make sure that you get a car with a trunk and put everything in there if you can't leave it in a hotel. It's not totally safe but much better than leaving something in the car. Empty the glovefold and leave it open so that people can see that it's empty.<BR><BR>b) If there are guarded parking lots, use them (in Aix they exist).<BR><BR>c) Disguising the car might help but judging from the number of car alarms of local cars, they are in my opinion as much a target for thieves as any other.<BR><BR>d) Hope for the best.<BR><BR>e) If your car gets broken in, chalk it up to experience and consider it a great travel story. I repeat the break-in into my car in Aix for a dozen years now (by the way, with the exception of point d) I did everything wrong).

What about license plates? We are renting a car in France and driving to Italy. Can't disguise the plate.

Why not just remove the license and keep it on the rear shelf inside your car? Just tell the cops it fell off. Hide it when you park.

Perhaps you now understand why Aix is a Front National stronghold.

Not to disparage anyone's attempts to help, but:<BR><BR>If we don't ever go to out-of-the-way places, we won't need a car in the first place.<BR><BR>Don't park here, don't park there...I'm afraid we were grateful to find anywhere to park, we couldn't be choosy.<BR><BR>Don't look like tourists? Not wishing to be sarcastic, but noone goes to the Chateau de Peyrepertuse on a business convention. : - )<BR><BR>My own philosophy is to accept that the worst might happen. Thieves will not take the time to rifle my bags and decide what is valuable - they'll take the lot. So, when we are forced to leave bags in the car, we remove anything that would be really inconvenient to replace (medecine, driving directions, etc.) and not just valuable.<BR><BR>Gary, I'm really sorry. And I'm not about to blame you, sometimes it just happens.

We just returned from the south of France where we rented a car. We had no problem, but I was worried at times. We never left our stuff in the car, always went directly to our hotel and unloaded before sightseeing. In Aix, there were plenty of pay garages where we parked. Just use common sense.

"from the police that this is a very common problem" --- when this was a "common problem" in FL, Miami in particular, the police dealt with it (sting operation) and put an end to it.<BR><BR>I fail to understand why the French, Italian & Spanish police don't deal more efficiently with their common thieves. <BR><BR>Yes, I take precautions, but it's getting tiring -- more than time to have the problem solved whether its gypsy refugees or home-grown unemployed.

MHS said <BR>"I fail to understand why the French, Italian & Spanish police don't deal more efficiently with their common thieves." <BR><BR>The last statistics I saw indicated that car related crime was higher in USA.<BR><BR>It is dangerous to assume that the rare incident reported in the US news is representative of the experience of the 160m people living in these three countries.<BR><BR>I wouldn't leave valuables in the car, though !<BR><BR>Peter<BR>Resident in South of France<BR>

Typical I guess of groups like the Front National to finance themselves this way. <BR><BR>Doug

Sorry to hear about that, Gary. We had our car broken into in a car park in a small town in the Luberon back in 1994 but, fortunately, our luggage was in our hotel and we'd taken everything else with us. <BR>

The idea of not parking anywhere touristy brought back a memory.<BR>Eight years ago was the first time we rented a car in England. Our first stop was Blenham.<BR>We pulled up into the 'visitor' parking lot. First sign that every car there belongs to a tourist. We hid everything in the trunk as per instructed. We arrived early while the lot was fairly empty.<BR>We walked away thinking the car would be easy to spot as it was a little red Vauxhaul with an avis sticker.<BR>When we returned later, there was a sea of little red Vauxhauls with avis stickers.<BR>Thank goodness they put the licence number on the keychain.

To Doug and JM;<BR><BR>How dare you place the blame on the<BR>Front National for this petty crime.<BR>It's undoubtedly the result of years of failed social policies of the Leftist<BR>ultra liberal regimes the French people have had to live under for so many years.<BR>The Front National, is an assembly of patriotic, lucid and courageous men and women, that embodies the fight against decadence. Today, it is the only hope for the French people.<BR><BR>

Dear repondent #1--No, my point is not that we should stay home and not travel, as we have travelled the world and the U.S. and will continue to do so, but rather that #1)the French license plate identification system is foolish and #2)this has not happened to us anywhere else in the world or in the U.S. (we live in a NYC suburb and travel into NY city,parking on the street all the time).<BR>We are not first time rube travellers, but rather "street savvy" and experienced in the do's and don'ts of getting around. Nothing in the vehicle was left in the open nor where there any rental identification stickers on the vehicle. Due to logistics (geographics) it was not possible to park an empty car. We always carry our most important items, including any medication, so that we "only" lost everything else. The thieves got nothing of value to them, but of course everything we needed to complete our trip.

Ditto jzjz<BR>The Front National, and groups like them are the only hope for Western Europe.

Yep. And Ben Laden is the only hope for the USA.