Money stolen in hostel

[bkkboy]

Money stolen from bag on bed while sleeping. Estelle municipal hostel. Not a big inconvenience as my passport and credit cards were left.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Theft is nowhere near as bad a problem as it was in the 1990s and 2000s, but it does occasionally still happen, so it pays to have an anti-theft strategy.

 

[pjacobi]

How did the thief know where to look for the money? You were watched when you last accessed the money, so the thief knew exactly where to look.

Always keep your money and passport in a money belt under your clothes. In some albergues, I even slept in my sleeping bag still wearing my money belt.


-Paul

 

[walkingagain]

Money stolen from bag on bed while sleeping. Estelle municipal hostel. Not a big inconvenience as my passport and credit cards were left.

I’m sorry that happened to you. It sounds like you had a good strategy by keeping your bag on your bed with you. Unfortunately, some people have no values and have a lot of experience stealing from pilgrims. May it build resilience in you just like a day walking in the pouring rain. Buen camino.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@bkkboy, my sympathies. Good that it was just your cash.
Regrettably it does pay to keep your cash etc in bed with you, although even that’s not foolproof - I know of several cases where people had the foot of their sleeping bags slit with a razor, although I haven't heard of it on the Camino.

Unless I'm in a private room I always sleep with my money belt on. A habit learnt over many, many years of travel, occasionally in a few shall we say less salubrious places.

 

[Barbara]

@bkkboy, my sympathies. Good that it was just your cash.
Regrettably it does pay to keep your cash etc in bed with you, although even that’s not foolproof - I know of several cases where people had the foot of their sleeping bags slit with a razor, although I haven't heard of it on the Camino.

Unless I'm in a private room I always sleep with my money belt on. A habit learnt over many, many years of travel, occasionally in a few shall we say less salubrious places.

Yes, me too. But please put your passport in a moisture proof cover or bag inside the money belt.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Yes, me too. But please put your passport in a moisture proof cover or bag inside the money belt.

Good point! Otherwise after weeks of heat and sweat they have a tendency to delaminate. I learnt that the hard way. Immigration in UK was not best pleased with me..... . I was in interrogation for over an hour before they established my bonafides. (Even though I had a second - Kiwi - passport).

 

[Paul Wilson]

I always sleep in my cargo shorts that I’ll be wearing the next day, all my valuables (money, bank cards, passport etc) are kept in my shorts and are never parted from me…but when you imagine how many pilgrims walk each year the thefts are very few and far between but prevention is better than cure