![]() “It all happened so fast,” said my friend Debbie at a recent dinner. “I’m standing at an ATM, this woman comes up and asks me a question, and then I glance down at the ground and my backpack is gone! My passport, credit cards, tickets, cash, everything!” Driving home afterwards, I said to Rich, “Imagine being alone, stranded in a foreign country, with all your valuables stolen!” Rich, who is (and I say this lovingly) a trifle obsessed with travel security measures, spent the next 25 miles imagining just that – and figuring out ways to avoid such disasters. I thought we’d plumbed the depths of the subject when he was preparing for our three-month train trip (see 10 Best Ways to Keep Your Valuables Safe on the Road) but it seemed there was a great deal left to say about it. 1. Never put all your valuables in one place. Divvy up electronics, credit cards, cash, documents, and vital medications, and store them in at least two places, such as on your person, in your daypack, inside your carryon bag, etc. Never place valuables in checked luggage, which can all too easily be lost or stolen. ![]() 2. Be prepared to locate and disable all electronic devices remotely. Rich likes Apple’s Find My iPhone, an app that can identify the location of a missing device, lock it down, erase all contents remotely, or – if it’s just mislaid around the house – make it ring loudly until we find it. We also have Prey, an app that works on Android, Windows, and other platforms, letting you recover your devices or wipe them remotely. Coolest part: you can trigger a loud alarm sound and send a message to the thieves to let them know you’re after them. 3. Carry your purse tucked under your arm. Despite what you’ve read in the catalogues, a bag slung diagonally across your chest isn’t safer. My friend Rena had one, and the motorcyclists who grabbed it dragged her down the street by the strap. “Your only thought at that point is how to get it off as quickly as possible,” she says. Similarly, when a motorcyclist snatched my shoulder bag, I was glad the thin strap broke; if there had been a wire cable inside the strap, I’d have shared Rena’s fate. ![]() 4. Sit with your purse on your lap and your daypack’s strap looped around a leg – your own, or that of a table or chair. When I suggested this to Patricia, a Canadian friend in Seville, she said, “But I feel so safe here!” I said, “Me, too. But I’ve had my purse stolen twice, right off my shoulder, in broad daylight.” She put her purse on her lap. If your bag’s too large for that, secure it to the furniture or your person. This isn’t necessary everywhere, of course, but it’s a must in sidewalk cafés, parks, and crowded bars. 5. If a stranger approaches you, watch out. Some thieves work in teams, and one may try to distract you – for instance, by pretending to drop a lit cigarette on your trousers and patting your leg frantically as if to put out the fire. When this happened to my friend Jim in the Paris subway, he felt a tug and managed to grab onto his wallet. My friend Debbie at the ATM wasn’t so lucky. ![]() One of the (few) benefits of being robbed is that you learn it’s not the end of the world, just annoying, inconvenient, and expensive. You do recover. Which is good, because no security measures are foolproof; even the best are no match for truly brilliant criminals like Professor Moriarity, Neal Caffrey, or Thomas Crown. But never fear; Rich is constantly devising new and better security protocols, and I’m standing by to pass them along to you. Unlike some of my better-organized and more practical blogger friends, I haven't obtained any free or discounted gear in return for promoting anything on this blog. I'm just letting you know about products Rich and I consider to be the most useful for our kind of travel. If you have travel security tips or horror stories to share, I'd love to hear them!
14 Comments
Laurie
3/20/2014 06:55:55 am
Reminder not to wear expensive gold esp necklaces which are all too easily yanked off the neck.
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Karen McCann
3/20/2014 09:41:47 am
Good tip, Laurie! I knew a priest who had his gold watch stolen on a bus full of people in broad daylight in Mexico. Best to leave the good stuff at home!
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Karen McCann
3/20/2014 09:52:37 am
What an awful experience, Cynthia! It's so true that "helpful" strangers often have larceny in mind. And now that such stories are becoming known, tourists lost in my neighborhood are terribly suspicious if I offer to help them find their way, sure that I've got an accomplice somewhere waiting to rob them. I never even offer any more, as it only seems to add to their distress, poor things!
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Jennifer Herrick
3/20/2014 09:05:01 am
Many thanks for the Prey tip, I have now protected my devices. Very useful advice x
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Karen McCann
3/20/2014 09:53:34 am
Glad it was helpful, Jennifer!
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I´ve found that the way I feel nearly totally secure is to wear a waist wallet (if that´s what they´re called) - tucked down my "front", out of sight. It´s amazing how much fits in one of these things. When I´m travelling, into mine goes cash, apart from what I expect to use that day, passport, airline tickets, house and car keys, credit cards and miscellaneous other odds and ends. If I´m in a hotel, I put it under the pillow at night and, if I´m in a particularly insecure place, it will even come into the bathroom with me while I shave and shower. Now, back home in Spain, I continue to use it all the time. A waist-wallet is not only secure against theft but also makes it less likely that one will accidentally lose things.
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Karen McCann
3/20/2014 10:03:36 am
Sounds like you've found a great solution, Robert. Although as I say in the post, you might want to think about keeping some of your valuables, or at least copies of ID, tickets and credit cards, someplace else as a backup. When it comes to security, a little redundancy is wise. You just never know...
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Tony Sim
3/20/2014 01:48:42 pm
If you see a sign "Pickpockets active in this area" Never, ever, pat your pocket to check it is there. Often the sign has been put up by the pickpockets so you show them where your valuables are.
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Karen McCann
3/26/2014 01:41:50 am
Good tip, Tony! I hadn't heard that one but it makes a lot of sense! Thanks for passing that along.
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nancy mason
3/20/2014 02:17:08 pm
the same advice goes for the gold earrings--dangling or otherwise. even if they are not valuable, and look nice, they will be snatched and the ear lobe might be torn in the process.
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Karen McCann
3/26/2014 01:49:47 am
You're so right, Nancy, that earrings can be a problem. I wear only obviously junky jewelry when traveling. Better safe than a torn earlobe!
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Catherine
3/25/2014 07:01:21 pm
Boarding the train in Terragona bound for Barcelona, a nice young man helped my husband and I heft out suitcases on to the train.
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Karen McCann
3/26/2014 01:56:35 am
It's awful to meet someone who restores your faith in the kindness of strangers – and then find he's robbed you! The separate debit card numbers is a great protection, so thanks for sharing that tip. The really astonishing thing about your story is that you got your wallet back! That must have been quite a surprise after all that time.
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I'm an American writer living in Seville, Spain and traveling the world with my husband, Rich. We've recently completed a five-month Mediterranean Comfort Food Tour, exploring the world's favorite cuisine to discover more about European culture — and our own. Send me your email and I'll send you more on the journey and what we learned about packing, comfort, and food. Try the comfort food recipes I've collected in 10 countries. OUR CURRENT LOCATION: SEVILLE, SPAIN BLOG ARCHIVES
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