Thefts of money in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro

[Mark Lee]

Stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro a few days ago. Next day heard that some of the peregrinos there had money stolen. Yes, it was unattended money, but let's not trash the victims. I heard in one case over one thousand euros had been stolen.
I noticed that during the day all kinds of people, mainly Spanish tourist peregrinos would wander through the living quarters there, take photos etc. See how the other half lives I suppose. Odd way to spend one's holiday.
Anyway, I don't recommend staying there.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro ...
Anyway, I don't recommend staying there.

There are a lot of new pilgrims and non-pilgrims. I observed a fairly large number of pilgrims checking in, then deciding to move on. The albergue is not well patrolled. It is wise to exercise extreme caution with valuables, and do so for the remainder of the pilgrimage. In my opinion the risk is not a lot higher in O Cebreiro, so avoiding it may not improve security. It is a great town for food and history, and the albergue is pretty much the only game in town for low cost accommodation.

 

[David]

Matthew 10:16 still holds true today you know

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

 

[Peter Hulme]

I met the guy who had the1000 euros stolen, by his own admission he left his waist back with his money in it on the top bunk whilst he slept below,they just stole the money from the bag and replaced the bag.

My advice would be to never let your money ipad phone or anything valuable out of your sight,sleep with your money in your sleeping bag with you.

Common sense has to prevail,do not put temptation peoples way.

 

[MichaelSG]

I don't recommend staying there.

I never understood this advice. I bet money has been stolen from someone in every albergue on the Camino at least once. Should we stop walking the Camino entirely or just re-route it through the 9th ward?????

 

[tominrm]

Unfortunately I did not get to stay in O'Cebreiro because the owner of the private albergue I stayed in Villafranca recommended another private albergue just before O'Cebreiro. But the next morning when I passed through the village, I realized that I missed an excellent place to stop. What a beautiful place to spend an afternoon/evening! Once you are in O'Cebreiro, I don't think you have much choices of where to stay. If I go back to CF, I will make sure I will stay at the municipal albergue in O'Cbreiro.

Unfortunately, this sort of theft occurs almost everywhere - not only on caminos but anywhere in the world. One must be careful. As others say, use common sense.

 

[Pruden]

Why people do behave like that leaving valuables on sight with no control!
Thief are thief and would take any chances to robe you and no matters if it's on the Camino or in a train or airport , just take care or your valuables.
Don't carry such amount of cash with you , not everyone on the Camino is a saint.
Be careful and buen camino.

 

[Mark Lee]

I never understood this advice. I bet money has been stolen from someone in every albergue on the Camino at least once. Should we stop walking the Camino entirely or just re-route it through the 9th ward?????

Nah, but definitely avoid albergues with such loose security.

 

[Mark Lee]

Matthew 10:16 still holds true today you know

"Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

Never played the sheep role well.....

 

[MichaelSG]

Nah, but definitely avoid albergues with such loose security.

Let's be clear. Albergues provide a place to sleep, clean up and sometimes to eat. They do not provide security. Having said that, I have only been to 31 albergues so I can only really speak about those ones. Maybe some of the others promise some sort of security but I would doubt it very much. You may have different expectations but those expectations are something that the hospitaleros have no control over.

 

[trevorcc]

I feel sorry for those that lost the money lets hope those who took it needed it, I lost my wallet last year but it made its way home befor I did less the money but all else in tact.

 

[dougfitz]

Stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro a few days ago. Next day heard that some of the peregrinos there had money stolen. Yes, it was unattended money, but let's not trash the victims. I heard in one case over one thousand euros had been stolen.
I noticed that during the day all kinds of people, mainly Spanish tourist peregrinos would wander through the living quarters there, take photos etc. See how the other half lives I suppose. Odd way to spend one's holiday.
Anyway, I don't recommend staying there.

@Mark Lee, it seems to me you are prepared to trash the reputation of the albergue based on hearsay, make snide remarks about other pilgrims, but not test the veracity of the story you have repeated. While it might be true, its also true that the 'I've lost my money' line is one of the most widespread travel scams around. Your 'baaa' is sounding pretty convincing to me.

 

[Olivia Luna]

We found that sleeping with our "cannot lose items" (meds, passport, phone, and money) was not uncomfortable and brought about peaceful sleep. ;-)

 

[Lynda t]

Post your money passport etc to the foot/inside of your sleeping bag when sleeping.

 

[tominrm]

This is not the first post of someone being the victim of theft on the camino. Despite of all these warnings and common sense discussions, someone will manage to become a victim next month or so. Obviously this type of posts do not help those potential victims.

 

[Olivia Luna]

This is not the first post of someone being the victim of theft on the camino. Despite of all these warnings and common sense discussions, someone will manage to become a victim next month or so. Obviously this type of posts do not help those potential victims.

Perhaps, but then we will never know how many people we might have helped

 

[MichaelSG]

It's fine to remind people to use common sense and to keep an eye on their important possessions. It's entirely a different thing to say "avoid this albergue because there was a theft there" because I am pretty sure every albergue has had a guest who was robbed at some point. I bet every fancy hotel in Europe, Asia and America has had such an experience too. Welcome to the real world folks.

 

[Finisterre]

People who leave money unguarded, easy to steal, are a menace. They are training thieves by reward. It is antisocial. Please look after your valuables.

 

[Mark Lee]

Well, kinda got slammed a couple of times on this thread, but if it kept even just one peregrino from being a victim of theft anywhere on the Camino then it was worth it.
Buen Camino and cheers.

 

[vgen5122]

Stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro a few days ago. Next day heard that some of the peregrinos there had money stolen. Yes, it was unattended money, but let's not trash the victims. I heard in one case over one thousand euros had been stolen.
I noticed that during the day all kinds of people, mainly Spanish tourist peregrinos would wander through the living quarters there, take photos etc. See how the other half lives I suppose. Odd way to spend one's holiday.
Anyway, I don't recommend staying there.

I stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro last year and we had no such problems. We never carried more than 100eros at one time and slept with our valuables inside our sleeping bags. I just don't think it is wise to leave valuables out For everyone to see. It does not matter where in the world you go someone may will always be tempted to steal what is yours if you leave stuff unattended.

 

[Olivares]

Stayed in the municipal albergue in O'Cebreiro a few days ago. Next day heard that some of the peregrinos there had money stolen. Yes, it was unattended money, but let's not trash the victims. I heard in one case over one thousand euros had been stolen.
I noticed that during the day all kinds of people, mainly Spanish tourist peregrinos would wander through the living quarters there, take photos etc. See how the other half lives I suppose. Odd way to spend one's holiday.
Anyway, I don't recommend staying there.

A couple of things on your message have me scratching my head-- it seems when you wrote the post it had been a few days you had stayed there. So, when you say "next day" does it means a few days after you stayed there or did it happened while you were at the Albergue? A bit confusing. I was there on Sunday 6 July 2014, so am curious, this may had happened while I was there as well.

Also, I have wandered into many albergues, most frequently to meet up with people I have met and sometimes to use the facilities, if allowed. I have never been asked my nationality or if I am a tourist so you have an uncanny ability to know exactly who is who (Spanish Tourist peregrinos). I speak Spanish as my first language and sometimes get confused; Argentinians, Chileans, Spaniards. That's fantatsic how you know exactly who is who and their pilgrim status. I did noticed the large amount of tourists at OCebreiro, whcih made complete sense as it is denominated one of the most beautiful hamlets in Spain. I am curious why you find it odd that people want to visit O'Cebreiro while on holiday

 

[Mark Lee]

A couple of things on your message have me scratching my head-- it seems when you wrote the post it had been a few days you had stayed there. So, when you say "next day" does it means a few days after you stayed there or did it happened while you were at the Albergue? A bit confusing. I was there on Sunday 6 July 2014, so am curious, this may had happened while I was there as well.

Also, I have wandered into many albergues, most frequently to meet up with people I have met and sometimes to use the facilities, if allowed. I have never been asked my nationality or if I am a tourist so you have an uncanny ability to know exactly who is who (Spanish Tourist peregrinos). I speak Spanish as my first language and sometimes get confused; Argentinians, Chileans, Spaniards. That's fantatsic how you know exactly who is who and their pilgrim status. I did noticed the large amount of tourists at OCebreiro, whcih made complete sense as it is denominated one of the most beautiful hamlets in Spain. I am curious why you find it odd that people want to visit O'Cebreiro while on holiday

Wow. Lot of questions, dude. Anyway, I'll do my best to answer them.
Stayed there on the 5th, so I suppose I heard about the thefts on the 6th. That being the next day.
"Uncanny ability". Nah, no uncanny abilities here. Otherwise I'd be doing magic shows in Vegas.
Nothing odd about visiting O"Cebreiro, just found it odd that one would want to tour an albergue while on holiday (and not walking the Camino, based on their obvious non-peregrino attire-street clothes, shoes, etc), taking photos of sleeping quarters and shoe racks, whether in O'Cebreiro or anywhere along the Camino.
Just hate to see people's Camino experience become negative because some loser rips them off. That's all.

 

[SMAKCANADA]

People who leave money unguarded, easy to steal, are a menace. They are training thieves by reward. It is antisocial. Please look after your valuables.

I know this was from a long time ago, but I'M reading it for the 1st time in 2019 So might other bes. The victims were SPRAYED with pepper spray as they SLEPT, so they leapt out of bed and ran to the bathroom to douse WATER on themselves: their faces and their throats. They were TARGETED and manipulated to run from their valuables by their attackers.

 

[trecile]

I know this was from a long time ago, but I'M reading it for the 1st time in 2019 So might other bes. The victims were SPRAYED with pepper spray as they SLEPT, so they leapt out of bed and ran to the bathroom to douse WATER on themselves: their faces and their throats. They were TARGETED and manipulated to run from their valuables by their attackers.

What the h--- are you talking about??!!!

 

[Kathar1na]

What the h--- are you talking about??!!!

The message refers to a robbery in September 2014 as reported in La Voz de Galicia. It had been discussed in a different thread from this one, though, which refers to a robbery in July 2014. The poster is new to the forum.

The recent question about deaths by natural causes (in another thread but now gone) has presumably also been posted in an unrelated thread by mistake.