Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Hey guys, I know it is totally not surprising in the slightest that this happened to me, but I cannot stress enough for you people to be careful in barcelona. I got my £300 jacked from me when walking down the street.
Stupidly I had my bag open so I was kind of asking this to happen but it was still a shock it did. I was just leaving the language school and walking up Carrer Muntaner and it got jacked.

Can't believe it.

Anyway I was reading about some tips to help provide advice to people visiting the city and the areas to stay away from
http://www.tocachat.com/barcelona/ca...-for--2528.htm

Sadly it has a really bad reputation for this sort of thing.

Can't stress enough about the Ramblas

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

sorry this has had to happen to you, but really nothing new. The Ramblas is a fave spot, as is the underground system. The police have generally proved ineffective, mistakenly thinking the locals will see their stamping down on it as a return to a police state.

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Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

What rubbish

Having lived for a couple of years in Barcelona, I regulalry saw the police chasing after pickpockets and even police raids in properties they thought the gangs were working out of

Unfortunately the pick pockets are hard to trace as they are normally Romanians who are not legally resident in the country - and who have no ID

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

so what you are saying is
a) pickpockets abound in Barcelona
b) the police have proven to be inadequate for the job of shutting them down due to lame excuses.

SO DON'T TELL ME I AM TALKING RUBBISH WHEN ALL YOU ARE DOING IS CONFIRMING IT

The police know who they are, where they live, just too damned frightened to get out of their offices and motor cars and get on the streets and eradicate the problem. It is even known they use the underground to evade the police, but where are the police.?
Barcelona's pickpocket problem comes up on many websites as warnings to visitors/holiday makers, just not the ones asking people to visit.


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Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Is Barcelona really worse than other big cities? Or is it because there are lots of tourists looking at the sights and not paying attention to their belongings? Best just not to carry cash or valuables where they can be got at!

Sorry about what happened to you though Matt, wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

you could be right - many people who are normally sensible let their guard down in a foreign land. If just on holiday/visiting then why do you want all your most expensive jewels etc with you? Or is it because they may not be safe in the UK !!

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Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

A friend of my wife visited us while we lived in Spain, she was staying in Torrevieja with her parents for the first part of her holiday as they were holidaying there. We warned her NOT to take everything with her when she went to the beach, and ALWAYS have it in view of someone in the party. So, day 1, they all went to the beach, she put her bag behind her mother's chair while the rest went to paddle, when she got back, no bag. She lost all her money, mobile phone, everything except her passport which was still in the bag when it was found. It took a week for her to get money sent over via Western Union as they sent it to a different bureau than the one they told her about, so she ended up having to go to ALL the WU branches before she eventually got her money.

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

So how exactly do you eradicate the problem?

Even if you have evidence that the person was a pick pocket, that offence in itself isnt enough to put them in prison. You need to catch the individual and have evidence for their crime, dozens of times

Pickpocketing is a particular problem in Barcelona, although they usually go after the tourists who have 1000 euro cameras around their necks and all their money and documents hanging off their shoulder

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

I recall a report on one individual in the Canaries who was still running the streets after 164 offences.
Apparently the judges didn't consider the offences serious enough for a custodial sentence.
Personally I'd turn a blind eye if the cops took him up a backstreet and gave him a good kicking.

The girlfriends mother had just arrived in Lanzarote.
Hadn't had an opportunity to secure her valuables so kept them with her when she went into the welcoming party.
Her bag was snatched from under her nose within minutes.

It used to be a regular thing in Benidorm for new arrivals to have their bags snatched within seconds of getting off the bus from the airport to go into their hotel.

Obviously in both cases the best time to strike as well as catch people offguard.

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Spanish police have obviously started to adopt new tactics in dealing with thieves - send them to Britain!:rofl:



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...theres-it.html

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

I did see it, thought it wouldn't be long before it turned up here!;) He's supposed to have a UK passport, even if it is an illegal one, so can't say I blame them, just begs the question why UK can't do the same with all the foreign dross that is filling up their prisons. (around 11,000)

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Half of the entire Spanish prison population is foreign, some 30,000 people

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

thank you for admitting that at last

well if anyone shows the bling they will immediately become targets, right across Europe the summer past time of snatching Rolex's etc hanging out of windows of top end motors still abounds.
as does the leaving of same motors on the drive, keys in a saucer by the door, helps for a fast getaway.

with pickpocketing etc being treated as a lower level crime than prostitution is it small wonder the anti-prostitute team in most cities is larger than that for pickpockets ??

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Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Nope:huh: the rumanians picked my bag in London 3 weeks ago the best thing about it I looked her straight in the eyes while she was doing it :frown:
I thought I was careful obviously not careful enough. They just cut the bag string which was I thought hidden under my coat and waited for it to drop.
easy 400 quid blackberry phone and card.
Police could not do anything insufficient evidence.:thumbdown:
Insurance did not pay out either as I did not stay in London more than 2 nights in the small print of course.

Re: Be careful in Barcelona !! regards to pick pockets.
 

Prostitution isnt a crime in Spain