Hi Shawn,
what a great page! Thanks for sharing it with us. I am finding this thread to be very useful. There are so many ingenious ways to get your money that do not even involve pickpocketting! My goodness! You can almost teach a class in this: Tips for the gullible traveler 101

Uhm, where did I read about that website before...

• Barcelona: a mugger\'s paradise (an article)
• Crafty & Creative Pickpocketing Procedures
• The low-down on Barcelona

Booklady, a librarian should have better memory :p

But Antonio, you did not follow through. Look closely at the threads and you will note that I did not make a comment in any of the three threads you noted. Therefore, you cannot assume that I read and saw the site mentioned earlier.

It's not the case that I forgot the site, but more likely that I never saw these threads. I'm not interested in Barcelona yet. As a good librarian I generally catalog an interesting web site among my favorites.

Unless of course you are remarking about my advanced age and bad memory hmmm?

Good topic. Some more information on thieves' ways from someone who lives in the Madrid area (and yes, I have been successfully targeted a couple of times). If a "drunk" does anything around your feet, especially if you are wearing long pants (ie. drops a lighter or other item, money, etc.) they probably are a thief with an accomplice, and the ruse is to grab your pants, lower their head so you cannot hit them while their accomplice picks your pocket. This happened to me on the Metro (subway). Especially on the Metro the thieves work in groups of 2 or more, one to distract, the others to rip you off. Do NOT expect help from the locals, they won't give it to you. By the way the police say it is your right to protect yourself, so haul off an WALLOP the SOB, hard, but beware they may have a knife!

Two more thieves' tricks are to pick your purse/backpack under a mapor newspaper while following you or asking you directions (a favorite of the Gitanos), and I have a model who was assaulted in Tirso de Molina (Barrio Lavapies) by pulling her hair from behind and snatching her purse. She is a former security guard, too! I have had my daypack picked from behind (my fault, should have acted on my sense of unease earlier), so if anyone, often a couple, is following you closely, they are probably up to no good. Watch out. Better to carry your daypack under one arm, with that arm wrapped around the bag, NOT sticking out behind. Carry only what you need, use the little luggage locks on all the zippers, and don't assume this will be enough!

Our landlady had her shopping bag ripped off in the restroom (when she was using the toilet) by a thief with a hook. Do not let your guard down, ever. Keep your billfold and passport either in your front pocket WITH YOUR HAND ON IT AT ALL TIMES, or in a shoulder holster! I always do, and got it stolen anyway by the thief in the Metro using the pant-grab technique. Never be overburdened when walking around. Take your cheapie camera, cheap watch with you, NOT your $2K video camera/Cannon 35mm wonder if you want to return with it.

After saying all this, don't be so freaked out that you don't have a good time. We all get ripped off sometime, the trick is to minimize the hassel by making the things you would have a difficult time replacing, like your passport, address book, etc. very difficult to swipe, and keeping it separate from things you need constantly. Separate your money into the main wad of cash, wrap it in plastic and ace bandage it to the back of your knee (not too tight!) and keep only enough for the next few hours in your accessable wallet, reload in a toilet stall when necessary. Don't wander around with a huge backpack or daypack full of guides, maps, books, cameras, etc., it will tire you out and make you a target. Use your common sense, remember you will be less alert when you are tired, hung over, drunk, stoned, jetlagged, hungry, gorged, etc. Report any theft IMMEDIATELY to the nearest police station and use the pay phone there to report any credit cards stolen. Mine was attemped to be used three hours later in Sevilla after being stolen in Madrid!

Above all, have a good time, travel smart and kudos to Madrid Man!

It´s been interesting reading this topic. The last time I was in Madrid I had my elderly parents with me and I told them to leave absolutely everything of value in the hotel. Myself, I carried a supermarket carrier bag with me, which held a cheap camera and a large bottle of water (thinking I could swing it at any nasty people!). I had a photocopy of my residencia in my back pocket and sufficient euros in my front jeans pocket to pay for lunch etc.

We were bothered just the once on the Sunday morning on the Paseo de Prada when a guy came running out of a hotel foyer, asking if we knew where the Bank of Lebanon(!) was so he could change some money into euros. He proceeded to show me his wallet full of varying currencies, and asked if I could show him what a euro looked like. I said I had none and that he should go back into the hotel and ask the receptionist to show him. He was very persistant, to the point where my father started reaching into his back pocket (I realised then that dad had NOT heeded my instructions!!). At this point another guy came out of the hotel doorway and hovered around. I had to be rude to the guy with the wallet and literaly push my parents away from him. I dread to think what would have happened if I had not been with them. They are of the old school and thought I was extremely rude to move them on from such a "friendly" person!!!

madsue, I love your idea of using a supermarket bag! That makes such good sense to me...a plastic bag from the grocery seems to be a fairly uninviting target and might make a traveler look less like a tourist.

I always felt like I "fit in" when I was out on a quick grocery run during my most recent visit to Spain (which I did to pick up fruit, water, chocolate, and other things a few times when my husband was back at the hostel)...probably partly because I wasn't toting all sorts of backpacks or totes around!

Good thread, kids.
My American friend and I were checking out the train schedule at the Den Haag train station (NL) when a thief opened up her backpack and took out her wallet. Now most thieves hide it and start rifling through it when they are in safety, right? Not this moron. He turned away and started to throw out the bits that didn´t interest him (ATM receipts etc...) right there. My friend looks down and sees her own driver´s license at her feet. She swings around and sees the guy with her wallet, and furiously grabs it out of his hand and starts yelling at him. He starts stammering something in Marroccan and looks in general very bewildered. His friends are nearby and ask what is going on. We explain that he tried to rob us while my friend is checking the contents of her wallet. One of his friends actually starts yelling at the thief as well and grabs him by his lapels, saying that he is making a bad example for his people.
The thief, looking very miserable now, starts to run away, very slowly though. I give my friend my backpack and run after him. I catch up, grab him and slam him against the wall, furious. I don´t think a woman ever treated him like that... Right at that moment the station guard comes over to find out what the ruckus is about, and they book him. He´d only been in the Netherlands a month, we find out, and was now looking at deportation...

Ummmhhh Onegirlarmy, a good example of a very bad thief.
The truth is that these guys don´t seem to have such an easy life. Just the other day I read nn the newspaper that 4 Morocans had tried to rob two Chinese cooks at Cuatro Caminos Square at 4.oo in the morning on a Sunday. Sth went wrong and one of the Morocans got a lethal stab in the heart. Not an easy life, not at all.

AJ

A friend of a friend who lives near Plaça Reial (in Barcelona) got mugged the other day by (again) 3 Maroccans. They had her in such a grip that she fainted, and took everything she had on her, including her student identity card and immigration papers. When she went to the police she got hell from them because according to her passport her visa was expired and she couldn´t prove that she was in change of status...
Worst thing she still sees the 3 guys that robbed her everyday...

When I was in Madrid last October, I run across "Mr. Bank of Lebanon." I met him early in the morning in Plaza Mayor. I'd seen him previous to that walking in the proximity of Plaza Mayor, and he always ask the same question, "Where's the Bank of Lebanon?" You'd think they could catch a thief with such a consistent mode of operation?
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was robbed two days previously by another group of thieves, so I was cautious enough not to lose any money at this encounter. After I responded to his question, he tells me that he has Lebanese banknotes, he shows one to me, and then he asks to see a banknote from the U.S. I quickly walked away and found a guard at a government building. I explained to the guard in my rather lousy Spanish what was going on, and he contacted the police. "Mr. Bank of Lebanon" works with accomplices, I saw him give a signal when I started to walk quickly away when I realized what was going on. And, of course, he was long gone before the police arrived.
Madrid has certainly lost a lot of its charm with me. Who needs to take a vacation in a place where there is such a feeling of uncertainty about personal safety? Perhaps these types of theives resort to non-violent means, but this could change at any moment. I travel with my wife, and it would be devastating if anything would happen to either of us. I've known Madrid since 1977, and I can't says I'd spend more than three days there now, unless I hear its been cleaned up.