TRAVEL ANNOUNCEMENT

 

A FB friend who has lived in Paris for 50-years off-and-on was just pickpocketed at "Republique metro station." She did all the right things, had a zippered shoulder bag with a flap over it and held it close to her body. 

Another friend had her wallet at the bottom of her backpack and was pickpocketed on a metro train. Note, she wore her backpack on her back and it was sandwiched against her back and the back of her seat. 

A few months ago, my husband got pickpocketed and we've lived in Paris for 15-years and thought we knew better. We did KNOW what was happening, because we were surrounded by teenagers on the metro, I managed to get through, but he got pushed up against the door. Fortunately, he held onto his wallet, but they managed to get his phone. Thankfully, he had a systems lock on it, but because he had a lot of financial information, just in case they broke through the system lock before he could delete all the data, he immediately changed all his passwords, and then deleted all the data on his phone.

Sorry, but NO-ONE is immune from picpockets.

As an aside, those theft proof men's pants with the inside zipper, DO NOT work. A close friend's wife got pushed down at a metro station.  She fell on her luggage, he went down to help her, a bunch of people pretended to help and stole his wallet. He had his credit cards and money stolen. And, they were only in town for 2 days, and could not wait to get replacement credit cards, nor could they go to an ATM.  Fortunately we were there to tie them over.

I use theft proof bags with a finger-proof lock for the ease of opening and closing, just as a precaution, but I know I'm not immune. Pickpockets will only get better with practice. So by the 2024 Paris Olympics they'll be magicians. 

I don't mean to scare you. Pickpockets abound in many large cities, just be aware of your surroundings and take precautions, but in reality only a small percentage actually get pickpocketed, don't be that small percentage.

Check out this link I wrote back in 2011, which much is still relevant today (click on it to direct you to article). "Theft on the rise"