How To Not Get Robbed While Traveling
9 steps to help you not get robbed when you are traveling. While these are not guarantees to stop you from being robbed, these are helpful tips to try and avoid the situation all together.
1. Put on your cross body purse, then put on your jacket over top.
Thieves avoid people that make stealing a pain in the ass. So go ahead, be a pain in the ass.
2. Don’t wander around seemingly lost.
Fake it till you make it, literally.
3. Don’t text and walk or talk on the phone and walk.
This is what thrives prey on. People not paying attention.
4. Don’t flaunt expensive items.
Or even cheap items that look expensive. Look cheap, look poor.
5. If carrying a purse, opt for a cross body rather than a shoulder bag.
Remember make it a pain the ass for a potential thief. It’s way more work to get a bag off someone if it’s wrapped around their body than if it’s just over a shoulder.
6. Don’t bring anything of value with you if you’re gonna go out and get drunk.
My cousin was living in Europe and both times he was robbed he was out drinking.
7. Avoid swarms of kids.
Not all kids are bad, but if you suddenly find yourself swarmed with a bunch of little hands poking you like a flock of chickens, you’re probably being pick pocketed.
8. Avoid visiting ATMs late in the evening or overnight.
The one time where I knew I was about to be mugged and saw it coming was stopping by an ATM around midnight heading back to my hostel in Barcelona. Luckily I saw what was about to happen and my friend had just stuffed her cash and cards in her purse and we ran into the hostel (which was dead across the street from the ATM). Avoid this if you can.
9. Don’t keep all your valuables in one place.
Split things up. Put different cards in different places. Put small amounts of cash in different places. Chances are a thief isn’t going to go on a hunt and find all of it if it’s divvied up. That way if you do get robbed you’re not completely screwed and you’ll still have access to cash.
2 thoughts on “How to not get robbed while traveling”
Leave a Reply
Great Advice! I’m lucky enough that I haven’t been robbed… although someone did steal my smelly shorts, a couple of vest tops, and a bra somewhere around Nicaragua/Costa Rica, which was very bizarre and mostly just really annoying! (They were taken from my backpack, but nothing else was and I had all my valuables on me.
One thing worth remembering is that what seems cheap at home might not seem so cheap in the country your visiting, so bear in mind local perceptions when making that call!
Yeah I think the only thing I had go missing ever was a leg razor… I can only guess someone in the hostel accidentally took it, because it seems like an odd thing to take haha