Beware the Pickpockets!

“Do you have your wallet?” To this day, I cannot explain why I asked my husband that question in the middle of a crowded Paris subway. It must have been God nudging me because only seconds later the question was answered in the worst possible way. No, my husband didn’t have his wallet and the likely suspects were the crew of men who were sliding away on a subway train heading into the darkness of the next tunnel. And there we were, standing alone in a foreign city, not even 24 hours into a European vacation, and my husband without his wallet.

How could this have happened to us, seasoned travelers? World travelers, even! Four continents, multiple trips to both coasts of the USA, and both of us traveling alone and together across various journeys. We’re no slouches when it comes to travel, and yet in the blink of an eye, thieves managed to lift my husband’s wallet straight out of his pocket without him even realizing it. For a few moments, we panicked, as any normal people would do. Then we pulled our wits together to form a game plan on how to move forward. 

Use caution in train stations as thieves tend to
work in teams.

Even though our initial reaction was panic, then anger, we soldiered through and really did have a great time over the next two weeks as we made our way across the European continent. Thankfully, I was also carrying a full array of credit cards, so we weren’t completely lost and helpless, waiting on replacement money and cards. It just meant that I had to carefully guard my purse even more diligently because if my wallet got stolen, then we’d absolutely be in trouble. And fortunately, our credit card companies and banks were excellent in working with us to deter any damage to our accounts. The thieves did try use one of our cards even before we managed to shut it down.

Did we learn anything from this experience? Oh yes! As all tough moments in life do, this one taught us a few things about travel that we thought we already knew, but that were lessons we had to relearn.

Being tired and jet lagged was part of our problem at the time of the wallet snatching. We had flown into Brussels, Belgium on an overnight flight. Instead of staying in Brussels the first day and night, we immediately hopped on a train to Paris. We’d already mapped out our entire journey from the airport in Brussels to our Air B&B condo in Paris, so we felt confident in the journey. Upon arriving in Paris, however, the train we’d planned to take to the condo was shut down for maintenance. We had to quickly pivot on our plan and design another route. The train station was crowded and crawling with thieves, apparently. We were too tired to keep our wits about us, and that made us easy targets. We also carried our luggage, so our status as travelers became obvious. In hindsight, we should’ve grabbed a taxi after realizing our original route wouldn’t work.

Out of habit, my husband put his wallet into his back pocket instead of the zippered pocket on the side of the pants he was wearing. He’d been so diligent about using the zippered pocket up to this point, but the tiredness and change of plans caused him to forget. He popped his wallet into his back pocket like he usually would. After our trip, he talked to a friend who’d also been pick-pocketed in Paris but from the front pocket of his pants. After hearing that story, my husband felt better about getting robbed.

Thieves work in teams. We realized this after the fact. On the train, we’d been surrounded by a group of men. When the train doors opened for us to exit, one of them stepped in front of my husband to distract him while another one picked his pocket. By the time we realized the theft, they were long gone on the train. We later watched these teams of thieves stake out people while they were waiting for trains. In fact, one team was staking us out again not long after the first incident. Luckily, we realized what they were doing. We decided not to board the train at the last minute, saving ourselves from further incident.

For the rest of the trip, we kept our antennas up looking for further scams. We watched lots of gaming and scamming take place all around Paris, especially at hot tourist spots like the Eiffel Tower. I kept a tight grip on my purse, especially since I was now the sole money carrier for the rest of the trip. It may seem rude, but we didn’t hesitate to push past street vendors, survey takers, and game players for the rest of our time in Europe. Most of them were thieves waiting for a chance to take our wallet and money at the first chance.

Many travel hot spots draw thieves hoping to
dupe unsuspecting tourists.

While this incident was frustrating, it won’t deter us from traveling in Europe again. We chalk it up as a learning experience and one more interesting adventure. C’est la vie, as the French say.