Theft

These are true stories of how people were robbed while traveling — so you can know how to avoid being robbed, or at least minimize the chances of it happening to you. Or learn what you might be able to do under these circumstances. To read any full post, click it’s header.

Possibly drugged – even when with her husband

 in Medical / Safety / Theft

This event happened to a woman who was traveling with her husband in Peru. As you will see it was in a very respectable and well-liked place. She shared this and is allowing me to share it to remind us that we all need to remember to trust our instincts. This post is all her own words. Drugged, or a freak drug interaction… My husband and I, both in our mid-40s, were in Lima, Peru. We met up with a friend of mine, a Peruvian man in his mid-50s, for lunch. At the restaurant, Punto Azul, which is known to have an excellent reputation, I ordered a Pisco Sour. At the last minute I changed my mind and ordered a bottle of Rose wine. My friend decided to drink my Pisco Sour. As lunch wore on, he started really slurring his words. He apologized profusely and said he hadn’t really […]

More tourist scams

 in Theft / Travel Tips

No matter how you travel or where you travel, somewhere there are scammers waiting to take what’s yours. Don’t let scams ruin your travels, holiday, vacation. Be wiser than them by knowing the scams.

Philippines Scammer Thieves: Gina in pink. Baya facing away.

Even grandmothers can con and drug you 2

 in Safety / Theft

This scam happened to a woman visiting the City of Manila in the Philippines. She is fine now but shared it so others may learn and avoid it. Others have reported something similar in other countries, even to a man in Japan. The getting-drugged part is extremely common but it typically happens to young travelers in bars, not a mid-day to mother, to an older woman.

The sad thing is that she enjoyed what she felt was an authentic experience with local women and she’d have been happy to pay for it — without being drugged and robbed.

The cream scam

 in Theft

I was walking alone on the wide sidewalk of a major street when a man came up behind me to my left. He swiped his hand on my back by my left shoulder and showed me that there was some kind of white cream on his hand. Shaving cream, I think.

Threatened with jail at Nicaragua border over exit stamp position

 in Deb's Travels / Mindset / Nicaragua / Theft / Transportation

Each time someone tells me they want to go to Nicaragua I cringe. I hear the people are lovely, they say, and it’s so inexpensive. Yes, that might be true — but my experience wasn’t about nice people. I was locked in a room at the border and threatened with jail — because of an immigration agent on a sick power trip.

I have long debated telling this story, but I feel it’s important. I’ll never know if I really would have been sent to jail in this Dictatorship, but the Tourism agent at the border certainly believed I was about to land there.

Please read this — and take it seriously.

My Safe Skies Cable Lock finally failed

 in Packing / Theft

Nothing will change that I loved my Safe Skies Cable Lock — but sadly, I now have to report that this lock has failed me. It reached its limit, so I have a use warning for you now.

The lock still looks almost brand new, even after using this lock daily for about 1 year and 5 months and even more when you add intermittent low use, for about 9 months after that heavy use.

However, one day months ago, during the low use time, while sliding the lock open, it failed me and it is no longer usable.

Theft by taxi driver in Panama City, Panama – Lic Plate 588431 2

 in Central America / Panama / Safety / Theft / Travel Tips

As with all stories of theft, I post this story to help good travelers remain safe as they get to know the world. I strongly believe that if more people in the world knew more other peoples of the world, there would be more trade and less war. I want people to travel safely and give themselves the opportunity to get to know local people wherever they go. This story of robbery relates the theft of two clean, honest, well-presented European travelers by the driver of an official (or official-looking) Panama City taxi (license plate 588431). Both are good sized people, in shape, not overweight, not tiny or weak looking.

Thefts by USA, TSA

 in North America / Theft / Travel Tips / Traveling with Technology / USA

On Monday, December 10, 2012, TravelMole.com reported about a TSA agent leving JFK International Airport with iPads he stole from passenger luggage. The story is “TSA agent caught red-handed with stolen iPads.” Regarding action against the employee, the story says: Transportation Security Administration spokesman David Castelveter told ABC News that the TSA has “taken the steps to begin processing [Henry] for termination.” “TSA holds its employees to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,” said Castelveter in a statement. What I do not understand is why the TSA does not have a simple rule: You steal, you lose your job! Granted, the USA is a country where we stupidly are not permitted to say something negative if asked to give a job reference, so a second rule is needed: You steal, you lose your job and the theft becomes a criminal record! It is […]

Travel packing tip for everyone!

 in Packing / Theft / Travel Tips

Deb’s Travel Tip: Do something to customize your luggage, suitcase, or backpack and your day bag or day pack in a major way. Backpackers, especially: Get yourself to a fabric store and cut the fabric and sew unique patches onto your pack on all sides. Buy flags of favorite countries and sew them on. Less effective, but maybe helpful would be to get handing dongles and put them on your pull tabs. This can work for soft luggage as well. Hard luggage users: Get some stickers and put them on all sides of your luggage so something is visible from all views. Just make your luggage or bags or backpacks unique!

6 a.m. thoughts

 in Central America / Deb in Guatemala / Deb's Travels / Guatemala / Packing / Theft / Travel Tips / Traveling with Technology

It is the middle of the night, the pre-dawn hour of 2 a.m. and Wednesday, June 6, 2012 is is its first hours. Crickets chirp outside under the full moon. The sky is clear. I love this time of day. In NYC it was always my favorite time; back in my 23rd or 24th years I would often be walking home at this hour and I loved the sky, the emptier (not empty) streets, the relative quiet of the city, and it’s maybe “new” energy at the 2-3 a.m. hours. In Los Angeles the air was often cooler at this hour and I would finally wind down from my day, feel I had had enough of my Mac, and would finally get outside for a cool, calm walk. Tonight, in the town of San Marcos on the shore of Lago De Atitlán in the Highlands of Guatemala, I am not […]