A vacation confessional

By George A. Smith, American Forces Network Broadcast CenterOctober 10, 2014

Pickpockets love tourists
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

While on vacation in Italy, my family and I decided to take a quick 20-minute hike before driving to the airport to fly home. We returned from the walk to find our car had been pilfered.

They took everything except for the bag holding our wet suits and snorkeling gear. The remaining suitcase was plopped in the dirt on top of shards of glass next to the car.

How could this happen?

It wasn't even a congested urban environment where you might expect a crime like this; it happened at a remote wildlife sanctuary near Siracusa, Italy.

Despite watching countless hours of AFN public service announcements, I let my guard down and got ripped off.

The only people we saw in the area were two men using long poles to knock olives off trees, and they were two miles from our stop, a parking lot at the entrance to the preserve.

As it was the off season, no one was working the entrance to the preserve and ours was the only car there.

Looking back, we think the theft plan was hatched an hour earlier when we stopped for directions at a bakery.

As we were talking to a young baker woman who used to live in the States, a disheveled man opened the front door without greeting anyone.

The baker lost her smile, constantly shifting her eyes from the newcomer to us. We now think the man called ahead to his comrades that tourists were on the way, and they grabbed some poles to knock olives and wait for us.

We think our then 11-year-old daughter saw another member of the team. After the theft, she told us when we first drove up she had seen a man wearing sunglasses and boots looking up at us while knee-deep in the marsh below.

As I retold our family misstep with friends, many of them shared their own embarrassing stories.

A common theme emerged. The thieves were continually watching tourists and were a lot more resourceful than we thought.

One friend said while he was on vacation he parked a camper at a remote beach and went into the water for an early evening swim with his wife. They took turns watching the camper from the ocean. But in that time someone squirmed under the camper from behind, cut a hole in under carriage and looted it.

A second friend said his German TV production crew stopped for espresso in a small Italian town, constantly looking out the café window at their van. But when they went back out to their van, they were shocked to see $50,000 in equipment was missing.

They ran back into the café to ask for a phone number for the police. The owner told them there was nothing law enforcement could do, but for a $1,500 finder's fee he might be able to get their gear back.

Fifteen minutes of phone calls and $1,500 later the video team had their equipment back.

A third friend mentioned sitting in a crowded Italian plaza savoring what tasted like ice cream but looked like a four-inch volcano on a plate. As he spooned his treat he noticed an attractive woman slip up to a man pointing a video camera around the plaza.

As she talked to the tourist, a young man slid up behind the camera wielder, swiped his wallet, and ran into the crowd.

While you're on vacation, it's natural you'll be looking for sights, not crooks. But consider that the thieves are looking for the tourists.

Whether it's Rome, Las Vegas or Los Angeles, if you look and act like a tourist you may as well be carrying a neon sign that garishly advertises "rob me."

Here are a few lessons I have learned from my travel experiences. Hopefully you don't have to learn the hard way like I did:

1. Blend in with the locals.

2. The time to think about a family protection plan is before travel begins, not when you're immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of a beautiful new place you've never visited.

3. Consider buying theft protection insurance.

4. Men: Become less of a pickpocket target by putting your wallet in your front pocket.

5. While planning a vacation in another country, research the criminal threat before you go. See what U.S. State Department security advisories are in effect. Talk to your unit's security officer before you go.

6. Some threats are unique to different countries. For example, while on vacation in Italy, women should not walk with a bag slung over the shoulder facing the street (motor bike riders might drive by and grab it).

7. Don't leave valuables in your car or assume you'll be safe for "just" a few minutes.

Assume thieves are watching and waiting for you to drop your guard.

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