The 10 worst cities for pickpockets

[ethel]

Being 'sensible' is no guarantee of not getting robbed.

it's not a guarantee, but my friend got her phone nicked this year. she was mashed and had put it in her back pocket.

 

[lang rabbie]

The major intersection stations of the Lisbon Metro in the rush hour seems to have become a popular haunt of pickpockets - only time that anyone has been anywhere near successful at trying to get my wallet - luckily I shouted "Thief" out loud (my Portuguese vocab didn't extend to carteirista! at the time) and they dropped it before dashing off the train. When I mentioned this experience, it seemed that it was now an everyday occurrence, and women grip their bags to their sides rather than reading.

 

[Madusa]

omg, why is Barcelona the ONLY place being mentioned? I live here and I've never been robbed (touch wood, lol) had one lame arse attempt but thas it.

 

[Voley]

I've been to three on that list and never had any bother. I'm surprised that Hanoi's on there - it didn't feel like the sort of place you'd get robbed to me.

 

[perplexis]

been to barcelona 8 times and i've never had anything nicked. i just try to be sensible.

Been to Barcelona nearly as many times as that, always staying round Ramblas/Raval/Gotico, which are blatantly the dodgiest areas because they're so tourist-riven. But I've never been mugged or pickpocketed, nor has anyone I've been with. I like to think that being sensible is actually good enough, you just need to not be paralytically drunk. Hell, I've even engaged in far too many ropey weed-deals and still been fine. I am not an intimidating person, either.
I've seen one bag-snatching. And I know loads of people who have had stuff stolen there.
Luck of the draw?

 

[Madusa]

Been to Barcelona nearly as many times as that, always staying round Ramblas/Raval/Gotico, which are blatantly the dodgiest areas because they're so tourist-riven. But I've never been mugged or pickpocketed, nor has anyone I've been with. I like to think that being sensible is actually good enough, you just need to not be paralytically drunk. Hell, I've even engaged in far too many ropey weed-deals and still been fine. I am not an intimidating person, either.
I've seen one bag-snatching. And I know loads of people who have had stuff stolen there.
Luck of the draw?

Actually, the only attempt I've experienced was that night in Raval when I was out with you on my way home, as it goes! Came back and posted about it on 'ere.

 

[Geri]

Got robbed in Via Laietana, they grabbed my purse out of my hand! Another time I was walking by the cathedral when a woman tried to slip her hand into my bag (which was an across body one).

If it any consolation Madusa, I have been robbed in Bristol more times than I care to remember. I live in an area where muggings and robberies are common, and I am a small unthreatening looking woman. It's not as if I go round flashing my cash and valuables, nine times out of ten I don't have much on me and they've ended up with a couple of quid.

I get pissed off when people blame the victims and bang on about being "sensible" - you can be as sensible as you like, but if someone wants to rob you, they will do.

 

[purplex]

I caught a pickpocket with his hand actually in my pocket in Spain earlier this year. I held it there then looked him square in the eye.
He was a smelly old Moroccan bloke, I was pretty pissed, I could have smacked him but felt pretty sorry for him.
He looked so embarrassed to be caught and pretty frightened, I ended up laughing at him. The pocket was empty anyway. No harm was done.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I had a bunch of gypsies swarm me in Rome. They didn't get anything, thanks to lots of turning and swatting by me.

In Paris with my wife, this woman started yelling at us. My French wasn't that good. Turns out, there was a kid, with his hand on my wife's purse. She'd been wearing it at the side. The woman took it and showed her how to wear it across her chest. A good samaritan to dumb canadians.

 

[phildwyer]

Why no American cities on the list? I've never been successfully pickpocketed, but I was mugged twice in New York City.

 

[Fuchs66]

St Petersburg, swarms of locust like Roma kids that surround the unsuspecting and remove everything they can

I even know of someone who had a lens nicked off his camera whilst it was hung round his neck, he noticed it was gone when he tried to take a photo

 

[Paul Russell]

I know I've mentioned it before, but I experienced the Barca bird-shit distraction scam -- someone brushes past you, putting something white and smelly (in my case garlic mayo) on the back of your coat. Later the person or an accomplice points it out to you and offers to "help" you, trying to get you to take your coat off, etc. Luckily I had read about this one beforehand, so just told the "helpful person" to go away.

Spent the bus journey to the airport stinking of garlic mayo.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Surprised Havana isn't up there. Lots of pickpockets and bag-snatchers there, but generally they aren't very adept. More opportunist (and acting out of desperation) than calculating.

 

[100% masahiko]

By 'eck, nobody has bothered to transcribe the list? Here it is:

Been to 7 here.
Never been picked.

Oddly, why isn't Rio there?

 

[phildwyer]

Oddly, why isn't Rio there?

I had an attempted one in Rio, but the kids were hardly tall enough to reach my pockets.

 

[IC3D]

A guy tried to rob us with a small samuri sword on a college trip we ran away successfully ..in Barcelona, the opp side of La Rambla to the gothic quarter ..sorry Madusa..it was along time ago

 

[Paul Russell]

had one lame arse attempt but thas it.

No-one ever attempted to arse me in Barca though.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Been to five of those on the list but have been very lucky and not robbed or pickpocketed in any of them.

I tend to be a bit anal though and put my purse in a zipped pocket in my bag, that kind of thing. Though if someone wanted to take my bag I am not sure there is a lot I could do about it. Like Geri said being sensible doesn't mean that you are not going to get robbed, if someone is determined enough they'll do it.

 

[g force]

Never been pickpocketed in Barcelona but know plenty of people who've had phones nicked, bags snatched of shoulders etc...saw one poor woman holding on to her camera bag for dear life being dragged down the street. Boardwalk on the beacj down towards Hotel Arts is far worse than Ramblas IMO...everyone knows it's 90% tourists getting hammered.

 

[shakespearegirl]

Been to 7 out of them and never been mugged/pickpocketed.

When I was in Hanoi I saw a woman get her bag ripped off her shoulder. Locals chased the mugger, got the bag back and beat the mugger up. They said they didn't want thieves ruining the reputation of their country.

 

[weltweit]

Oh, and .. in Barcelona many years ago ..

We had a car lent to us by a friend, a relative had just put into the boot all their christmas presents for their family back in Britain and we were to drive the car and the presents back to Britain. Anyhow stupidly someone left an instamatic camera on the dashboard which might have appealed to theives.

We were away from the car for just half an hour, leaving it locked. When we came back to it, the camera and all the christmas presents were gone!

 

[kage]

I went to Barca in August, first day in, getting on the train at Daigonal station with my SLR in my hands, I felt someone push against me. Nothing really twigged until a couple of seconds later I realised that it was a bit strange as the carriage was only half full. I looked down to see an middle aged woman with her hand in my pocket, she'd managed to get both very stiff poppers open and was reaching further to get the wallet. A couple of seconds later and she'd have had it. I slapped her hand and shouted Oi! in her face. She said fuck all and nonchalantly stood for the next 2 stops before getting off.

I couldn't believe the cheek of it, she didn't even look ashamed. Perhaps if more people gave them a good fucking kicking they might start thinking twice.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Are they Spanish folk who are responsible for all the crime?

 

[Fingers]

I have been to 9/10 of those cities (Florence being the only one I have not been to) and the only place I got PP's was in Oxford Street.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Been to Barca a few times and never got robbed. Was getting on a train in Florence (big crowd, lots of pushing), had wallet stolen from my bag. Last year was robbed again, in Milan, I was photographing shop windows, they must've been watching me closely and they managed to get my camera and wallet. Fortunately my wallet only had about 5 euros and one bank card in it, I don't take lots of money and cards out with me when I'm abroad anymore.

I used to live in Portobello Road, I was pickpocketed there three times, how they do it, I've no idea. <stuffs money down knickers>/

 

[g force]

Are they Spanish folk who are responsible for all the crime?

Well that's a highly loaded question but i'll bite

The majority of trouble makers in the Barrio Gotic are young kids, generally North African immigrants. Problem is the police will then just go an arrest any vaguely Algerian-looking kid and put him in a line up with a few more kids and a confused tourist unsure who the hell it was will be asked to identify them. I;ve been at thge central police station and pointed out the person who mugged a Swedish tourist, while she incorrectly said it was someone else, quite clearly still in shock from being dragged down the street while cluching on to her camcorder

There's also quite a few turf wars going on between Algerians and Moroccans in parts of the city that led to some strife about 4 years ago when the police went in heavy handed.

On Las Ramblas it's a real mixture of people because they all know it's tourists there for the taking.

 

[birte]

I'm also surprised to see barcelona as the number one spot. Amsterdam being in the top 10 is also strange. I did expect italy to have a few cities in this list... I have heard that pickpocketing is very commone there! Luckily I haven't had any bad experiences like this yet. (knock on wood!)