The Facts:
When
Sunday, August 8,
2004, 12:12 p.m.
Where
Lima, Peru
How
"Stealth and
Distraction"
What
was Stolen
The smaller of
the two bags I travel with containing the bulk of my most valued
things: my travel journal, 2 SD photo storage cards with hundreds
of photos and several video clips (all prior to Santiago, Chile),
Postcards, miscellaneous souvenirs, my guidebook, cd player, 25
mp3 cd's with about 10 cd's burned on each, my down coat, and of
course the Northface backpack itself.
Description of the
Event
I had one hour remaining in Lima to wait for a bus north to Trujillo,Peru and decided to have lunch at a Pizza Hut. I sat down
in a corner in such a way that I considered strategic i.e. no
direction for my things to move but in front of me. Working in a
group 3 to 5 maybe, a man to my right dropped some coins on the
floor. I thought "what a dummy" as I'm sure other people did as
all looked at the source of the noise. I turned toward him, away
for my bags bent down and pushed one coin 6 inch cl
oser to him to
help. I sat back up facing the restaurant lobby and t
hen looked to
my left and to my shock and as if in a bad dream saw my big bag on
the floor with the smaller backpack no longer on top of it. As I
was distracted looking to the right and a bonus for the crooks,
bent down to help. Another person grabs my bag and begins to move
with it. other accomplices stand in front of him to block my view
looking like people in line to order food. From beginning to end
about 8 seconds. Second 1 - all is fine and normal, everyone in
the restaurant is a customer or employee. Second 2 - the group has
me "marked" as a target and begin to move into position. Seconds
3-4 - all in position a man creates a diversion by dropping coins
and at the same time someone has their hand on the handle of my
bag. Seconds 5-6 - I am looking right, thief begins to exit with
my bag. Second 7 - I notice the theft. Second 8 - The thief is
halfway out to the street and by the time I start yelling he is
GONE. Not running but calmly walking away. Others disperse
simultaneously. The crime was executed very quickly and
professionally.
The Bad
Lost all my most valued
things. Due mostly to fault, my guard was down and I got "popped".
The Good
1st - It was not a
violent assault. 2nd - They did not get my passport or ATM card. and gratefully
I was carrying my camera on me too. I made an incident report with police
that by the way arrived very quickly (a couple of minutes). Highly doubt
anything will come of it. Did have my e mail address throughout my stuff. Also,
the best photos I took were backed up on Photoisland.
How to
Prevent it from Happening Again?
It is difficult to say what I could have done differently. I did not feel
threatened in any way as I was in a corner not a hallway or on the street. My
bags where to my immediate left within arms reach. For starters I should
separate valuables. For example I backed up my photo cards containing ALL my
photos to cd but had the originals WITH the copies! also the SD cards are the
size of postage stamps and could have been taped them to my passport. This is
without a doubt my biggest failure. Maybe be sure they are touching me or chain
them together with a lock? Just be more careful assume there is never a safe
moment when in public.
Side
Note
Ironically, the thought
I had on my mind WHILE all this was happening was "I sure have been lucky
traveling so many places, so many miles without a problem". I swear to God, this
is Twilight Zone stuff. Also the next day I replaced my guidebook with a
different publisher and inside the Lima section it warned of exactly what
happening to me. Roughly quoting "...there is no better place in the world to
have things stolen..."
P.S.
I wrote this much to try
to analyze what happened. I felt so screwed, so taken advantage of, so
foolish like I had a sign on me that said "sucker" and the bag had a sign "free, just
take it". One second all is good, the next, just a huge empty feeling. I hope
this never happens to you while traveling. Will continue on to Ecuador for 2 or 3 week visiting
about 4 places. Plan to fly home from Quito. Late August/early September.
Bye for now, hope all is good.
TheJoyofTraveling.com
