They’re Very Good at What They Do: On travel theft, and what I’ve learned
I’ve been traveling for decades. I know how to be careful. And it still happened. On a recent trip to the Canary Islands, one of my close travel friends had her wallet stolen — in broad daylight, on a guided tour, with her wallet zipped inside a compartment inside her backpack.
So let’s talk about it.
It Can Happen to Anyone
The Canary Islands have a pickpocketing problem. Not a “keep an eye on your purse” problem — an organized, coordinated, professional operation. Thieves travel in pairs, carry backpacks, wear sunglasses, and sometimes dress and act like tourists. Police have confirmed the groups are coordinated — and that some travel to the Canaries specifically and solely to steal.
Our guides knew this. They didn’t just warn us in general terms — they pointed out specific individuals in the crowd. That person. Watch that one. We knew what we were dealing with.
It didn’t matter.
At one of our stops, a few of my travel companions stepped into a restaurant for a beer while the rest of us wandered around. When it came time to pay, one friend’s wallet was gone. She thought she might have left it on the boat. Then her phone started lighting up with fraud alerts. They spent several thousand dollars in minutes. Her bank caught it fast — but only because she had the right protections in place.
The part that stuck with me was earlier in the day, another friend had noticed her backpack wasn’t fully zipped. We zipped it and moved on. Didn’t think twice. The wallet was almost certainly already gone. Someone had opened the bag, taken it, and zipped it back up just enough that nothing felt wrong.
Her wallet was inside a zipped compartment inside her backpack. We had been warned, out loud, with visual confirmation. It still happened.
These people are very, very good at what they do.
The Mexico City Subway
Years ago, a friend and I were visiting Mexico City. Our local friend had warned us: the subway gets crowded, there will be pushing and shoving to board, don’t be alarmed. So when the pushing started, we weren’t alarmed. We were prepared.
Except the pushing was the trick. While everyone jostled to get on, someone reached into my friend’s pocket and lifted his wallet. The doors closed. We were on the train. They were not. I’ll never forget my friend pointing straight at the thief, telling me that woman had his wallet, as the doors closed and the train pulled away. She was laughing.
The warning we’d been given — the very thing meant to keep us safe — had made us comfortable with exactly the behavior that robbed us.
Cost Rica
And then there was Costa Rica, our group stopped for lunch. We made up most of the room, so I felt comfortable setting my camera on a bag behind us at the table. Seemed fine. We were right there. When lunch ended, the camera was gone.
No drama, no confrontation. Just gone. That’s the thing about this kind of theft — you often don’t even know when it happened.
What Actually Protects You
I’ve read posts about travel safety that tell you to blend in, don’t look like a tourist, don’t wear flashy jewelry, etc. We laughed about this on a recent trip to Benin — standing at the base of the statue of the Amazon in Cotonou, surrounded by locals and vendors, us travelers all in cargo pants and sun hats and camera straps. Everything on the recommended packing lists. There was not going to be any blending in!
Over the years, I’ve made a few simple changes. I switched to a bag with locking zippers. Not just zipped, actually locked. I’ve carried a Pacsafe Metrosafe for years, and my mom uses a Travelon anti-theft bag. Different styles, same idea. The Pacsafe also has wire built into the strap and mesh in the bag itself, so it’s not easy to cut open or slice off. It slows me down a little when I need to get in and out of it, but it also makes it a lot harder for someone else to do it without me noticing. It’s not foolproof, nothing is, but it makes us less appealing targets.
I don’t carry everything in one place anymore either. Some cash in the bag, some in a pocket, some tucked somewhere else. Losing one stash isn’t the end of the trip. And I keep a little cash easy to grab so I’m not opening my main bag all the time.
I’ve also started keeping my phone physically attached to me. I use a lanyard, the kind that clips into your phone case. I used to use SwitchEasy and now use MagEasy, but honestly the brand matters less than the habit. It makes it much harder for someone to grab your phone and disappear, and it keeps me from setting it down somewhere and walking away. It also means it’s always right there when I want a photo!
I go more minimalist on jewelry when traveling — I leave my engagement ring at home and only wear my wedding ring if I’m going somewhere really off the beaten path. But I’m not a flashy jewelry person anyway.
Lastly, I always travel with a copy of my passport separate from the original. The real one stays in the hotel safe when it can. It’s a small thing and luckily I’ve not yet needed it, but the thought is that it makes a bad situation a lot easier to deal with.
The Part Nobody Talks About
My friend in the Canary Islands lost a couple hundred in cash and dealt with card issues for a few days. She handled it with remarkable grace. My friend in Mexico drank too many margaritas in the hotel bar after we were robbed, his pride a little shaken. No one was hurt. The trip, as it does, went on.
But the thing that stays with you isn’t the money, it’s the feeling of violation. The invisible hand in the bag. The moment of realizing someone had been that close, that deliberate, and you never saw it coming.
That’s the part worth taking seriously. Not to make you afraid to travel, but to make sure you have a plan before you need one.
