Bag snatches more than double from last year. Barcelona Airport.

Image thanks to Microsoft AI creator.

In the first half of this year, bag snatches and pocket picking in Barcelona Airport have more than doubled on last year.

First, we need to get these numbers in perspective. Around 25 million passengers passed through the airport in this half-year while about 3,000 of them got robbed. That is double last year’s thieving quota but I think we ought to look at it more closely before panicking. In the same six months about 72,000 people had their flight cancelled. The inconvenience and disappointment of both outcomes is largely the same. But cancelled flights don’t make such bold headlines. Everybody knows that flights get cancelled. And I didn’t manage to get numbers on the people who missed their flight through their own negligence.

Nevertheless, it is a miserable experience when you are robbed. So it’s good to be aware of it and to know how to minimise the risk of it happening to you. But there is also so much you can do beforehand to lessen the loss and, more importantly, the inconvenience.

To be robbed is not a nice experience. In over fifty years of travelling, I have been robbed only once but I have left things behind lots of times. And in my years of doing vacation rentals I had several guests who had their bags stolen. Where you keep your important items, as you move around, is the critical factor. Your important items are, in order of importance: passport, travel tickets, telephone, glasses, medicines, credit and debit cards. And I bet you ALWAYS put your car keys in your handbag. Whatever currency you have is easily split into different pockets and bags etc. But the thieves are generally just looking for cash. For you, as the traveller, unless you have great bundles of the stuff, cash is NOT IMPORTANT. So, if you have some loose spending money in your bag and it gets stolen, it’s no big deal. Your passport? That’s a BIG,BIG deal.

If they steal a bag with money in it, you can still keep moving. It may not even be worthwhile going to the police. But losing your passport creates horrendous difficulties and if your glasses are gone, you can’t even think, never mind see. If you still have your phone, you can contact fellow travellers and find solutions. If you’ve lost your travel tickets, they need to be replaced. Losing your car keys (or house keys) presents a challenge. If you need critical medication and you lose it, well the situation is critical!

But more than all this is the feeling of personal violation. Your bag, your passport, your phone, your personal items. It hurts. It insults your dignity and, worst of all, makes you feel guilty. You should have been more alert. Well, you shouldn’t feel guilty but you sometimes need to change the chip and change some lifetime habits.

Most of the solution comes in what you wear. If you are wearing drain-pipe jeans, a skirt or leggings, you are short on pockets. A normal pair of trousers (pants in USA) have front pockets where you can keep your passport and tickets. A pair of “cargo pants” usually has some zipper pockets down the legs, good for money and credit cards. Cargo pants also are available as shorts. A shirt with a breast pocket can take your glasses or hang them on a cord. Your medicine (or at least enough for today) can go in a trouser pocket. But keep nothing in your back pockets that’s of any value. The distraction is in front of you but the thief is behind.

In your shoulder bag or backpack, you can have your kleenex, your book, small perfume, sandwiches, maybe a jersey or umbrella etc. So that when some little shit takes your bag, you can say, “Sod you friend.” And just let it go. Don’t try to hang onto it; that can get you seriously hurt. It’s not a problem if you have about 100 Euros/Dollars in it. That’s peanuts compared to losing your passport.

And sorry ladies but you’re the ones getting chewed off here. But of course you should have your passport and tickets in your handbag! Huh! And your husband’s too! And the kids’passports. And ALL the money you just took out of the ATM. That’s just plain common sense, isn’t it? NO IT IS NOT! (I’ll tell you a wee story at the end of this story.)

We are told that Asian visitors are particularly targeted because they tend to carry cash in preference to plastic cards. Europeans are now very much into contactless cards. But everybody is vulnerable and it is miserable when it happens. My own opinion is that Asian people, especially Indian, are targeted because they wear a lot of gold. They take it off before arriving at the airport because they know they´ll have to, in order to pass through security. Everybody believes that putting valuables in their small, personal bag is the safest option BUT IT’S THE SMALL BAG THAT THIEVES TARGET.

The HOT SPOTS are as you enter arrivals and leave departures. The thieves need a quick getaway so they don’t come into the main body of the airport. The risk is higher as you are coming out of your shuttle transport: taxi, bus, train or being dropped off by a friend. Make the byebye hugs snappy and keep a watchful eye around you. It is very unusual for them to steal a heavy suitcase but a bag that’s hanging loose on your arm is a gift. YOU WILL NOT NEED YOUR PASSPORT TILL YOU ARE UPSTAIRS IN THE AIRPORT (or at baggage check-in). So please, please, don’t have passport and ticket in your small bag.

Going through security and passport control is always a hassle; all your liquids in a plastic bag, belt off, shoes off etc., but it isn’t usually a risk area for theft. So don’t get fussed about arranging things till you are well inside the airport.

If you are flying into the airport, where you need to be paying attention is after you have exited the baggage reclaim area and are heading for the shuttle bus, train, car park or pick-up area. You’re tired after the flight and in a strange environment but this is the time you need to be alert. Two of the bad areas are the official shuttle-buses. There is one that shuttles between the two terminals and one that takes you to the city centre. It’s generally a bit of push-and-shove. Between terminals is free but you need a ticket for the city-centre transfer. The thieves shuffle up behind you and catch you in a weak moment. You can buy the tickets online beforehand or have the cash or card ready in your pocket before you exit arrivals.

As I said at the beginning, although the incidence has doubled, it still equates to only a tiny percentage of travellers. Approximately three robberies for every twenty-five thousand passengers. That’s 0.012%, so there isn’t a huge crisis. But if you are one of the unlucky people, you will have to go to the office of the police. The Catalan police are the Mossos d’Escuadra, usually just called the Mossos. You will have to make a statement called a “denuncia”. You will need a copy for any insurance claim. If your passports were taken, you’ll need to go to the Embassy or Consulate, depending what country you are from. They will not normally give you a new passport but rather a temporary document that allows you to get home. If you are robbed as you enter the airport for your flight home, the passport process will usually cause you to miss your flight. This is why it’s so stupid to have your passport in your small bag.

BEAR IN MIND! You can’t let down your guard after you leave the airport. City centre also has thieves, especially on the Metro. The modus operendi is the same; they distract you or catch you when you are otherwise distracted, come up behind and take what they want. Violence is very rare but you can get hurt if you hold on to your bag or try to fight them off.

NOW MY LITTLE STORY

The year is 1987 and I am a tour guide, working for a holiday-letting agent on the Costa Brava, long before Airbnb. Every Friday we went to Girona Airport (90 miles north of Barcelona). There were three companies, Starvillas, Beachvillas and Costa Brava Villas, all sharing a chartered holiday flight. I was with Starvillas and, along with three other guides, had to pick up the arrivals by bus and escort them to their various apartments and villas. And, of course, pick them up on the last day to take them back to the airport.

The guests had to vacate their accommodation at a pre-set time and wait on the street for our bus. I usually had a driver called Reyes, a cheery helpful guy. One day, late August, we pulled into the pick-up street in the little town of Sant Antoni de Calonge. The waiting family were in a distraught state. The mother had just had her handbag grabbed by two boys on a motorbike. Yes, you’ve guessed it; she had ALL THE PASSPORTS AND ALL THE TICKETS in her bag.

Now for me, with a bus-load of homeward-bound travellers, I really only had two options to offer the afflicted family. I could leave them or take them to the airport and try to sort things out there. Either way, they’d have to get a document from the police. Then they would need to go to Barcelona to the British Consulate for temporary “passports”. Neither option was going to help them much.

But my driver was Reyes, the cheery helpful guy, so I asked him if he’d take the bus via the local Guardia Civil office. That way they would have the police document when they arrived in the airport. It would be a long-shot but we might manage to bluff it at the airport and get them home. In those days they were the official body before the Mossos and their office was about a mile inland in Calonge.He agreed without hesitation and off we went, parked the bus in front of the Guardia Civil and in we went. My Spanish was not great so Reyes helped explain the situation.

A young cabo dug out an old typewriter, two sheets of paper and a sheet of carbon copy-paper. He rattled off the “denuncia” and gave one copy to the lady who’d been robbed. Off we went again, taking a short cut that involved some scary curves and got to the airport in good time.

As Starvillas was one of the three charterers, we had a number of blank flight tickets to issue for emergencies so I hand-wrote these as we drove to the airport. When we arrived at departures, I explained my plan. I was fairly sure that if I stayed with the family up to passport control, the National Police would insist that I should take them to the British Embassy for the correct documentation. The Guardia Civil statement would not be enough. So they would miss their flight and the next one was the following Friday!

I explained to the family that I would remain out of sight but would be on hand to help them if my plan failed. I was gambling that if the police at passport control were saddled with the question of what to do, they would just let them through and pass the buck to British Immigration. After all, they had tickets, so best just get rid of the problem. So it was best if I stayed out of the way.

I gambled correctly. The family got on the plane, took off on time, and arrived home safe and sound. They wrote a letter to the office of Starvillas. NO, it wasn´t a thank-you letter, it was a letter of complaint. The guide had abandoned them to their own devices in the airport!

So, anyway, enjoy your travels wherever you are going and DON’T KEEP ALL THE PASSPORTS AND TICKETS ETC. in a vulnerable, small, snatchable bag. If you really believe your little bag is safest place then make sure it´s held tight in front of you, not behind you or at the side.