British Expats - Not only in Spain

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Not only in Spain

It is not only in Spain that one needs to be careful :eek:

Quote:

WARNING! Handbag Theft Scam

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Just a warning to anyone who has had their handbag stolen recently.

I was told this by my Sister when she visited us the other week.

Basically, My Sister's friend (lets call her Jude) went shopping in Bluewater, Kent and went to the toilet. She hung her handbag on a hook outside the cubicle, which unfortunatley was stolen. Jude did all the normal things (look round, ask in shops, call the police etc) but to no avaial and went home. After a few days, Jude recieved a phone call supposedly from John Lewis saying they found her bag and asking when will she come and collect it. At the pre-arranged time, she went to John Lewis to collect her bag; the staff did not know anything about it so after about an hour or two of confusion, Jude went home. As she got home, she stepped inside and her house had been burgled- completely cleared out. Of course, now she knows the John Lewis phone call was fake (made by the thiefs using the number stored on the phone which was in the stolen bag) and that the thiefs had her house keys (in the stolen bag) and of course knew she was going to be out for over an hour looking for the bag, so the perfect crime!

This is a true story, and I do hope none of you ever have to go through something like this. Just a warning - never leave your house empty when going to retrieve a stolen handbag!

I copied this from MSE website

Re: Not only in Spain

Quote:

Just a warning - never leave your house empty when going to retrieve a stolen handbag!

I think there are a couple of more basic lessons to be learned here, whether or not the above is true.

(1) If you leave your handbag hanging outside the cubicle when you go to the toilet you're asking for trouble.

(2) If your handbag has been stolen, and contains both house keys and some indication of your address, and yet for some reason you don't get your locks changed immediately, you're asking for trouble.

Re: Not only in Spain

I can not for the life of me understand why this lady left her bag outside the cubicle,:confused: no one in there right mind would do that, the loos in Bluewater have hooks on the doors inside the cubicles, even if they didn't all my shopping would be in the loo with me.

Re: Not only in Spain

This sounds like an urban myth to me. Nobody would hang their handbag outside of a toilet cubicle.

Re: Not only in Spain

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiclanagir (Post 7599537)

This sounds like an urban myth to me. Nobody would hang their handbag outside of a toilet cubicle.

Exactly, why would they do that?

Re: Not only in Spain

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Originally Posted by crispy (Post 7599489)

Me too, weird or not.

Re: Not only in Spain

I don't think I have ever been to any public loos where they even mount hooks on the OUTSIDE of the cubicle.!

But anyway, HOW the handbag was stolen is not really relevant. I think the message is that if you lose your housekeys together with your address you should always get the locks changed.