Hello all,Thank you all for your concerns, I am just getting myself together, now I feel angry but I am not going to let this woman spoil my Festive time, I just wanted to inform people.Thank you.

How scary for you. Glad you are all right albeit a bit shaken.

And thanks for taking the time to let us know, may I just say well done you, for chasing after her and not just giving up, we are often told to just let things happen and avoid conflict, this may be the best thing but it's not necessarily the right thing to do, the more of a soft touch people are the more these things happen.

As to the people saying you should do this or do that in your situation truth is we dont known what we would do until it's the same time/place/person, so enjoy you Christmas and pat yourself on the back!!

Thank you for your comments, a few more things are coming back to me now, the woman bit me, but luckily she did not break my skin, when the police arrived she quickly got up and even when I was driving past she looked perfectly well whilst giving the police her details.

A few years ago my wife and I were followed by a young beggar girl at the Lidl supermarket car park near Playa Flamenca, she was asking us to let her return the trolley, no doubt for the Euro coin in the slaot, when I refused she waither till my back was turned and just grabbed the coin from the slot, apparently the trick was to be wearing some metal grips on her fingers which overcame the resistance of the coin slot. Couldn't be bothered to chase after her, but a few months later they were activly getting rid of any beggars outside the store, and asking patrons to report any.

A few months ago we gave some loose change to girl who sits by the trolleys at one of the local supermarkets.
As we walked away she called us back as my wife had left her bag in the trolley, so a heart warming tale for Xmas.
What I didn't get is how a"blind" person would have noticed!

It 'beggars' belief sometimes

I've seen kids operating the old protection racket scam outside Lidl supermarkets as well.
They approach and ask for money when they see you parking.

Ignore them and walk away without giving them something at your peril, as they wont walk away from your car and will hang around it threatening damage unless you cough up.

Go with a friend next time ? Safety in numbers.

Not exactly a "mugging". But a few months ago my wife and I were in IKEA ( Sevilla) when we saw a "blind" woman with a guide dog walk up to an assistant, gave them the dog and white stick to hold, then she walked over to some furniture pulled out a tape measure and started to measure it's dimension, writing down the results on a piece of paper!
Pete

Truly amazing, miracles never cease !

Another common begging scam around here is holding a placard stating they are deaf and dumb.
They seem to concentrate their efforts on tourists, as the local Spanish seem to know them very well, as do the local police who usually have a word with them and move them on.

What a rotten experience for you. Good for you for giving chase and also for letting us know about that scam. I go there quite often to shop so will keep a look out so that I do not get done myself.

It is always easy to give advice about what you should or should not have done or should do, but as someone has said no one really knows and I got some really ignorant replies when I warned people about thefts in Aldi´s in Torrox Costa when there were men in there doing the distraction technique, there were about five people were caught including me, thankfully for me only an old purse which had less than 10 euros in it, but some of the others had their wallets and purses stolen with all their cards and money inside.

It remained common in there for about a year. I wrote to Aldi´s in the end in Germany.

But I did the same as you, put it on a post and it created a furor, with so many sarcastic remarks, but I feel that it is good that you warn people about techniques like that. That is very intimidating and as you say no one wants to know. Good on you though for giving chase.

That is a horrible experience you had, robbed and the victim of xenophobia.

I often give to beggars in Spain and my daughter tells me off or intervenes. After reading about your experience , it will be ' foxtrot Oscar' from now on.

I hope you're now feeling better.

Thank you for kindness from people on this forum, I wish you all a safe Christmas and a Happy New Year.