I wanted to write about an incident that happened to me and my family during our vacation to Europe. During our stay in Rome, Italy after sightseeing, we came back to out hotel in greater Rome. (about 5km from Vatican City) Our hotel was the Raganelli Hotel on Via Aurelia Street. Hungry, we asked the hotel staff where the nearest grocery store was so we could pick up drinks and snacks (such as crisps and Italian chocolates.) They told us there was a large grocery store nearby called Panorama (an Italian chain of grocery stores. Kind of like a Walmart in the U.S.) about 1km away, about a 10 minute walk. So we decided to walk to the store. In order to enter the lot of where Panorama, you had to pass a back street. There was no walking path straight to the store, there was only a direct path by car. So we had to take the back road. While strolling along, a black car pulled up next my mom, dad, and I. On the passenger side, the man dressed in a formal coat rolled down the window telling us to stop, claiming that he was part of the police. He then showed us his "police id card" Clueless, my parents and I thought he was an actual cop that was undercover so we followed his orders. He asked us where we were from, and we answered and said we were from the U.S. The whole time he remained sitting inside the car with another man who was in the drivers seat. The "officer" demanded to see our passports. My mom went along and took our passports out of her bag and handed them over to him. He analyzed them making sure they weren't fakes. He even smelled them. We though he was just checking to see that we weren't illegal aliens in Italy or anything. (Btw, were Asian. Filipino American to be exact) After analyzing our passports, he handed them back to my mom. My dad took them from her and put in his pocket. This time, the man demanded that my mom hand over her purse and my dad hand over his wallet. He said that he was checking to see if we were carrying any drugs or fake money. He snooped through my moms purse searching for drugs and went through the money in her wallet analyzing the cash. (She had US dollars, GB pounds, and Euros) he analyzed the money to confirm that they weren't fake. He smelled the money as well. We thought he was really just going through the pile making sure that out cash wasn't fake. He handed my mom pack her purse and then went through my dads wallet. Thankfully he didn't ask me to hand over my wallet. After the "officer" was done snooping through out things, he told us that yeah the money's real, not fake and also said that yeah we weren't carrying any drugs or anything.. which we weren't in the first place! He handed back our belongings and then said thank you.. and sorry for bothering you. Then he shook out his hands giving each of us a handshake saying sorry again to each one of us. Seconds later he and the driver drove past in that black car. Right after that incident, my parents and I thought he was just an undercover cop or something, doing random checks on people on the streets. At first when he stopped us, he thought we were Chinese. I thought that maybe there are illegal Chinese people in Italy who deal drugs and use fake money? I thought maybe he had mistaken us for one of those kind of people? It wasn't until we were making our purchase at Panorama that my mom realized that the cash in her wallet seemed thinner. She realized that her larger bills in USD and Euro were gone, however the smaller bills such as (5's, 10's, 20's and 50's) were untouched. Only all the 100 US dollar bills and 100 Euro bills were stolen. When he was going through the bills, we had no idea that he has magic fingers wand was actually stealing from us. In total the "cop" stole around $400 USD and 300 Euros. Im not sure if this man was a real police officer, just an extremely corrupt one (b/c I heard that the Italian government is notorious for corruption.) or an impostor. Scared and not knowing what to do in a foreign country, we just went along and followed his orders because we thought he was just an undercover cop. Thankfully all he did was steal cash. It's a good thing he didn't steal our passports, my moms purse entirely, or the camera that was around my neck. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to get this out there. What do you guys think this man was? A corrupt police officer or an impostor? I've never heard read or heard about an incident like this. Yeah there are a lot of pickpockets in Italy which never seemed to bother us, however I never knew that there were fake police officers that steal money from tourists. in the end, we never got the money back, and we ended up not filing a report to the police because we felt as if they would be of any help anyways.

Tips for people traveling to Europe (Rome, Italy specifically): Don't carry a lot of cash, don't look like a tourist, don't fall for a fake cop like how we did, and be aware of your surroundings.

I hope this post prevents these thieves from robbing anyone else!
Safe travels

That's terrible this happened to your parents. I hope it didn't spoil the rest of your trip. Sounds like they were con men - I certainly hope they weren't really policemen!

Thanks for sharing this. I've also heard Rome is notorious for pickpockets and purse-snatchers, but that's really over the top.

Thieves working a hotel strip with lots of tourists to con. Next time act like you don't speak their language and don't understand them. They'll move on the to the next target.

I would say that those were fake cops. Even though it is not uncommon or illegal that also plainclothes cops do random spot checks on passports anywhere in the Schengen area.

While you probably have thought of different things in that situation, it could have been helpful to note the license plate number when they drove off. If someone takes the effort to get a fake police ID, chances are good that he might have pulled that stunt before so the real cops might have had a good chance to connect him with other crimes.

The loss of money sure must have been a shock, I still wonder why you carried THAT much money in cash to a grocery store - or anywhere else for sightseeing in Rome.

What were your parents doing, carrying so much ready cash?

As a first time poster with a tale of woe, learn the tricks of Fodorites for obtaining cash on the road.

I notice that you weren't part of this also. Suspicious.

I'd give you about a 20-25% chance this story is true.

Fake cop stuff big everywhere.

1. Paris RER "cop" told us we were being targeted by pickpockets and to be careful. Strongly resisted temptation to touch wallet to see if it was still ther.

2. Glasgow, luxury hotel. Scratching at door. Opened door to two shabby men, "undercover hotel security" just checking whether our room was locked. As the Scots say, "Aye, right!" Called desk. Went down to lobby. Chef with meat cleaver holding perps for police.

3. Boston: fake cop, Ford LTD, flashing blue lights behind grille. Stopping women drivers and forcing them into sex.

Don't get paranoid about Rome, Paris (that was in June) or Barcelona (last winter a constant theme but I guess there hasn't been any crime there this summer.)

A fool and his money are soon parted!

Handed over your passports to 2 strange men in an unmarked car????
Perhaps a little street sense should be taught in schools. Yikes!

You had that kind of cash on you?

You actually handed over purses/wallets/passports to two strangers in a car?

Have you ever been anywhere in the world where a real cop didn't get OUT of a vehicle, present ID, and then question you?

Sorry, but some people simply shouldn't leave home.

Criminals are always one step ahead of honest / inexperienced travelers.
The appearance of the "authority "can be intimidating.;
let's not blame the victims.

Victims yes but you cannot wander around the world with fette di salame davanti agli occhi (slices of salame in front of your eyes).

I have to say some of you have a pretty unrealistic understanding of how things work in different countries.

First of all 'fake cop' scams are common around the world. You can read some examples here: http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com...when-traveling

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give advice on how to act if you think you may be a victim of this con. For example, suppose a plain clothes police officer in the USA was who the OP here was talking about.

If a plain clothes officer shows you his ID as happened here and you then say, 'I will not show you my ID unless you get a uniformed officer here to confirm you are actually a cop.', if he is a real cop he can cuff you and take you in to the station right then and there. It is illegal to refuse to co-operate with a police officer. You don't have to show ID but if you don't he can take you in. You don't get to just say no, and walk away.

This is the problem. You don't KNOW if it is a real officer or not. If it isn't, you can take advice like, 'tell him you will only co-operate if you can walk to the police station and then answer questions. You are not going to get in the car and you are not going to show him anything.'

That's fine if its a con, its not fine if it's a real cop.

I recently read a thread on a travel forum (I can't find it right now, I had a look) by someone who was approached in a similar manner (only the 2 'officers' were walking, not in a car). This happened in Athens, Greece where a crackdown on illegal immigrants has been going on. The 'officers' said they were checking for illegals and asked to see ID. Believing it to be a scam like the one described here by the OP, they refused to show their passports. Within a couple of minutes they found themselves face down with a knee in their neck and handcuffs being put on while another half dozen cops arrived in cop cars. They were real cops and these two travellers had refused to co-operate.

Some racism and even theft has been reported as being carried out under the 'cover' of this crackdown. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/20...oreigners.html

The reality is you have to co-operate with the police if stopped. You can't know if they are cons or not. You can ask to see ID but if they show it as they did in the OPs case, then what?

So comments about the OP being at fault in any way are ridiculous. The only real fault the OP can place on themselves is carrying around a bit too much cash and not reporting it to the police.

There really is no way to protect against this unless you are prepared to refuse and be taken into custody if they are the real deal.

And you people seriously wonder why new posters don't feel comfortable here?

"Some people simply shouldn't leave home." ???
why are you carrying so much money?
Slices of salame in front of your eyes?

Geesh....welcome to Fodors!

Ahc, Thank you for taking the time to share this. There are so many people taking advantage of visitors out of their element. Salame over your eyes is pretending they don't exist. Of course most Fodorites are way too savvy to ever fall for anything like this. (at least not that they would admit)

I don't think the OP is at fault, either, it was a scary situation. And how many times on here do we see people claiming you have to have your passport on you at all times in Europe for legal reasons, one might expect you are going to be stopped on the street randomly and questioned (as someone above says, I really don't think this is "common" myself, in Europe). Being Asian, I can understand you might think that could be the reason for scrutiny.

And a lot of people carry that much money on them in Europe, that isn't a super huge amount, by my standards. I don't carry USD around with me much in Europe, although I take some with me for emergencies (at home or abroad, you could cash it), around $200. And I often take out 200 euro from an ATM in Europe, so I don't think 300 euro is such a huge amount.

Some people carry that much money on them in the U.S. where, in many tourist destinations, the crime rate is much higher than Italy.

I hope the OP related this story to the hotel so that other travelers will be warned before walking to the Panorama. BTW, it does not appear from the hotel's website that there are safes in the guest rooms.

Grasshopper

my salame comment was directed at all Fodors readers

but I find it strange whenever the first posting by a new OP is of this nature

Sorry - but I can;t imagine either 1) walking down some back alley to get anywhere and 2) giving anything to guys pulling up in a random car and starts asking for things passport and wallet.

If stuck in that situation the thing to do is 1) either go back to the hotel and ak them to help deal with it (the guys would just disappear) or go to the store and do the same thing.

People can't scam you if you don't let them. (Also, always know the local emergency number - and if nothing else - in a situation by this call it - the guys would have left).

When I travelled to Rome my hotel kept my passport until we departed.

The last trip we took to Italy we had American express travelers checks and it was very difficult to cash them. Rome had an American express store and I had to cash in all of my travel checks. I travelled the rest of the vacation with a lot of cash. Not by choice.

This is an awful story thanks for making us aware!

OP and those in his/her party did not walk around with just €300 but with €300 and $400 plus remaining many bills of smaller denominations. So we are talking about someone who visits Rome and wanders around suburbs of Rome with approximately the equivalent of $1,000 in cash in their wallets. Excuse me, but even if you sometimes withdraw €200 from an ATM, there seems to me a huge difference in having some $250 in your wallet or $1,000. This is really a bit odd, IMO.

Nevertheless, the way police approaches you in foreign countries may be in a very different manner than you know it from home. In each and every Schengen country, the police - uniformed or in plain clothes - has the authority to see your passport - without resonable cause. So that alone is never an indication for something fishy going on.

Or when you are on the road, police in many countries will not tail you with sirens on, but get in front of you in an unmarked car and switch on a "follow me" sign in the rear window, or wave a stick with "police" on it out the window to make you stop. Procedures differ.

Caveat viator!