A stolen piano and other robberies: How to be safe when traveling

The following is a guest post from Pauline Paquin, a French girl who has recently started to blog over at Reach Financial Independence (and one of the mentees in the Bloggers Helping Bloggers program. My mentee, actually. She’s awesome). Born and raised in Paris, Pauline blogs about how she has been traveling the world for the past 10 years, while trying to build wealth and achieve financial independence, and how you can follow your dreams and reach your goals too. You can follow Pauline on Twitter @RFIndependence.

I don’t care much about material things. Being safe and healthy is what matters most to me. It is a good
thing to have, considering all the stuff that I have lost, damaged, or have been stolen over the years.

The piano
My piano was stolen when I was living in Guatemala. I know, it’s not something you can sneak up your
sleeve and leave my house with. I was about to move out of the country after living there for three
years, and selling my stuff on the local ads website. A guy contacted me , saying he would send movers
over, they would hand me a bank certified check and leave with my piano. This is common practice
here, so I accepted. When they arrived bright and early at 7am, I didn’t realize that it was so I couldn’t
call the bank and confirm the check. Until the fake check bounced a few days later.

WHAT I DID: Call the bank who ”issued” the check to warn them. They knew about the scam. In my
defense, how many of you know what a certified check from bank X looks like? Call the police. They knew too, and told me to put other ads under another name with their cellphone number, and they would call when they catch the thieves. They never called.

The first robbery
Guatemala is known mostly for its robberies. During the three years I lived there, I heard all kind of
scary stories happening to my friends. Getting mugged at gunpoint, or kidnapped as a kid, most upper
class families lived in fear, with bodyguards and houses surrounded by barbwire. I thought I was
smarter. I didn’t show off. I cycled around, I had no schedule to track me, and as a foreigner I could be
making minimum wage working for a non profit. Not the best target.

It worked. Until I started thinking I was untouchable. Once, I withdrew about $400 to buy a fridge
(didn’t have a credit card yet), went to the shoe shop next door, left my purse on the floor while I tried
the shoes on, and found the money missing.

WHAT I DID: Nothing. It is hard to claim cash, I would even say impossible. Went on with my day and
spent another month without a fridge. I took some security measures though. If I had to withdraw money, I went to the closet bank and paid straight away, no butterflying at the mall in between. Now I usually have $5 of so hidden on me (pocket, sock, bra, get creative). Enough to go back home or call a friend. I have a wallet with credit cards, and a little pouch for money. I can give the money and keep the cards. My phone is a ”dumbphone” and my iPod rarely leaves the house.

The stolen iPod

Until that other time. Five years later, oblivious to my friends warning that the situation had gotten worse, I was coming out of the dentist’s after a root canal. Dental treatments are high quality and very cheap in Guatemala, by the way. I had taken my friend’s iPod to listen while the dentist went through my flesh. On the bus ride home, a few guys got in, and everyone started yelling in fear. They were robbing us. Bandit style. Give us everything, right now. I sighed, and went for my phone and the iPod.

The phone fell on my neighbor’s knees, and she hid it. I was really scared because those guys are
known to go easy on the trigger if you refuse to give them your phone. But the woman next to me
didn’t move or give a cent. It all happened in less than a minute. They took my money pouch, emptied
it, and threw it on the floor. Good. Buying a new one was probably more expensive than the $7 I had
inside. My neighbor gave me my phone back. And I still had $10 hidden to ride the bus back home.
They got the iPod, though.

WHAT I DID: Again, not much. They didn’t get my credit cards, I just bought my friend a new Ipod. If
your cards get stolen, you may have to cancel them with your bank, and if they buy something by then,
you will need to file a police report for your insurance. In countries like Guatemala, it is tedious, expect
to lose half a day of holiday.

The mugging
I thought the capital city was the only place where people got mugged, and as I had moved to Antigua,
Guatemala, a beautiful colonial town known for its laid-back atmosphere, I relaxed a little. A little too
much. Two guys mugged me in a deserted alley. The mimicked like they had a gun, but I saw it was
only a cellphone, so at least my life was not in danger. It was just a bad day. While searching through
my bag to find my money and phone as ordered, they got impatient, and asked for the whole bag. I had
about $25 in cash, but add a pay as you go phone (the one the bus bandits didn’t get), a leather bag, a
sweater, a pair of sunglasses, and the day cost me about $250.

WHAT I DID: I went back to my condo to warn the manager, since many foreigners lived there and I
got mugged half a block away. He said casually that I was the third resident this week. I lost it on him.
If he was the manager he pretended to be, why not stick a note on the gate to warn us? He pretended to
call the police, which I am pretty sure he never did. Oh, and the guys stole my keys too, so I worried
for another month until the condo manager changed the key to the gate.

Bonus story
After a few months, I came back to Paris, with my credit card in my pocket. Checked my online
banking and saw someone withdrew money with that card, from Colombia! A country I had never
visited. My card was probably cloned in one of the restaurants that I frequent, as they slide the card at
the bar to charge it and bring it back to your table with the voucher for you to sign.

WHAT I DID: I called the bank, they had to re-issue a new one, meaning I had to spend a few days
without my card. Thankfully I was back to my card’s registered address or it would have been a pain to
get it back quickly.

Please, Jana’s readers, don’t be like me! Take care of your valuables! Those stories happened in
Guatemala, but, if you don’t pay attention enough, they can happen anywhere. Following those simple
tips while traveling can save you a great deal of problems:

• Keep your valuables in different places. Less convenient, but you may only have to give one thing if mugged.
• Keep a scan of your passport, your credit card details and emergency phone numbers on your email, so you can cancel them easily.
• Always carry a little bit of hidden cash. Enough to make a phone call back home, and take a taxi back to your hotel.
• Know where the embassy is. They will not lend you money but can help you contact your family and reissue your passport.
• Do not show off. A camera hanging around your neck, a big watch, an open pocket with some cash is only an invitation to rob you.
• Give everything. If something similar does happen to you, do not try to be smart. My retired neighbors in Guatemala had just bought a pan and when the wife was attacked the husband banged the thief with the pan! Had he been armed, the story may not have had a happy ending. In the bus I just gave everything, and didn’t try to be smart. You never know.

Jana’s note: I admire Pauline for not only her tenacity but her ability to bounce back and continue to travel (and move to the country where a lot of this happened). I think her tips are amazing and the next time I travel, I plan on following a whole lot of them.