	Barcelona Activities 2009: "Hop on Hop Off" Sightseeing Bus, Flamenco Show, Tapas Evening, FC Stadium Tour

Barcelona Travel Newsletter

Issue #13

Title: Safety first - How to beat the Barcelona Pickpockets

14th July 2005

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Hola

This edition of Barcelona travel is devoted to helping ensure you have a safe visit to Barcelona and leave with happy memories. It will look at the main safety risks involved when visiting the city and provide tips to help ensure your safety.

Site visitors who have not visited Barcelona yet have sent me feedback saying that Barcelona is probably “like any other big city when it comes to theft or pick pocketing”. However being a seasoned traveller myself, and having visited many major cities in the world, I would say perhaps think again. Every city has a downside and petty theft is one of Barcelona’s main problems.

I do not want to scare you or put you off from visiting Barcelona however it is important that you be aware of some of the strategies that will help you have a trouble-free visit when visiting the city.

Please do not think “It will never happen to me”. Rather try to read the Barcelona Safety Article with the aim of applying these strategies to help protect yourself. With this idea in mind you’ll get more out of the article and be prepared to apply some of these simple steps to help protect yourself.

But before you read the safety article here is one of my own personal experiences:

My personal theft story:

Last year I had my mobile phone stolen. I had been out with a friend and was feeling quite relaxed and decided to stroll home along the Ramblas which I often do instead of taking the metro.

I had not been careful that night and had put my mobile in my top left shirt pocket.

To this day I don’t know for certain how they did it but all I know was one minute my mobile was there and the next it was gone!

All the way home I kept replaying my walk along the Ramblas over and over in my mind trying to figure out how they managed to steal my phone. Maybe I dropped it myself? Did I actually take my phone with me in the first place? Did I speak to anyone on the way back? Many different scenarios kept whizzing through my head as I tried to work out what had happened.

It wasn’t until I finally arrived home and was lying in bed that I remembered one person on the Ramblas bumping into my left shoulder, without as much as a break in their stride or a glance back to gesture an apology - they disappeared into the faceless crowd. Although I can’t be sure, I suspect that was the person who took my phone. It all happened in a few seconds.

The next day I went to the police station to report the incident and was quite surprised to see how many other tourists were there who had belongings stolen. Whilst I was waiting I spoke to other tourists about their experiences.

One lady had her purse lifted whilst she was in Barcelona Sants rail station. She had just arrived from the airport with her husband and two children and had her luggage and bags all around them as she was organizing herself to buy tickets for the metro. She checked her purse was in her bag ready to pay for her train ticket. But she remembered that after putting her purse back into her bag she had not zipped up the bag all the way back.

When she eventually got to the front of the queue she reached into her bag for her purse only to discover that someone had lifted it from the bag. She told me. “All our holiday money was in that purse, everything. We had not been in the city for more than half an hour and all our money had gone”

Another lady had had her bag cut off by the strap and the person ran off with it. She was quite shocked because this was the first time anything had happened to her like this in her life.

There must have been 25 to 30 tourists also sitting in line waiting to make their reports but I didn’t have a chance to speak to them.

Eventually I made my report and folded up my copy of the denuncia and pushed it in my inside jacket pocket. As I was making my way out of the police station I overhead one elderly lady say to her husband in a very upset and bitter tone “I hate this rotten city! This damn incident has ruined our holiday” That comment really effected me me. I thought to myself “what a terrible waste of a wonderful experience”. I know that Barcelona is a beautiful city and the people here are very friendly and kind. Unfortunately this lady had fallen victim to a small minority that give Barcelona a bad name.

If you follow the steps in the safety article (see link below) you will radically reduce the chance of anything unsavoury happening to you.

Here is the link for the Barcelona safety Article:

<http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/barcelona-safety.html>

What to do if you are a victim of crime:

The first thing you should do is go to a police station (or Comisaria as it’s called) and make an official report of the crime (Denuncia). The police report will be required by your travel insurance policy to ensure that you can make a claim.

Once you have made your report you will need to take down the address of the police station in which you made the report along with a copy of the report.

Most tourists know how to get to the Ramblas and there is a police station there close to Gran Teatre de Liceu.

What if you don’t know where your nearest police station is or you can’t speak Spanish?

There is an English speaking police telephone number for victims of crimes who wish to make a police report but do not speak Spanish. The number is: 902 -102 -112. This telephone line operates from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily. The telephone assistant will take your details and instruct you where to find the police station where you must go to sign the denuncia.

Travel Insurance
It’s highly recommended that you take out a quality travel insurance policy whilst visiting Barcelona. If you fall victim to crime/theft or a scam then a quality travel insurance policy can save you a lot of heartache. And even if something does not go wrong, at least you can buy peace of mind for a small fee allowing you to enjoy your holiday to the fullest.

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I love Barcelona so it really pains me to have to write such things about how to protect yourself against pickpockets, scam merchants etc but this is unfortunately a very real concern in Barcelona. So make sure to read the safety article and apply some of the tips that you will find in it to ensure a safer visit.

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Here is the link again to the safety article:

<http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/barcelona-safety.html>

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Road safety
Having lived in the UK for many years I’m accustomed to drivers obeying the traffic light conventions i.e. a Red light = Stop Orange light = Stop or continue if you are at the point of no return, Green light = Go. Perhaps in your country too you have similar sensible traffic safety rules. However here in Spain safe driving rules are not always adhered to. I often see cars jumping through Red Traffic Lights - even when people are still on the crossing! When the green light for pedestrians to walk is showing it does not mean that cars will necessarily stop for you. Cars can pass through lights if they have a flashing orange light which means “go if it’s safe to” -but the question is - Safe for who?.

Even if the cars don’t have the go ahead they are still known for jumping through the lights. Be wary in assuming that cars will stop for you because sometimes they don’t. Even when the lights for pedestrians are showing that you can walk.

Another annoying habit that Spanish drivers have is to leave breaking to the very last possible second. This can be very unnerving because you never really know if they have seen you on the crossing or not.

Conclusion: Try to be extra vigilant when crossing roads in Barcelona. The drivers here are not the safest drivers by far and they seem to follow their own rules at times.

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