More airport luggage theft
byImagine the post office delivering your mail to a big open heap, mixed with the envelopes and boxes of 300 strangers. The honor-based system…
Imagine the post office delivering your mail to a big open heap, mixed with the envelopes and boxes of 300 strangers. The honor-based system…
ou look like a million dallahs,” the mugger leers at Bob Arno, his gold teeth glinting in the Panamanian sun. The dozen or so…
Theft on Planes All this hearsay, lately, about pickpockets and theft on planes. Even a celebrity-son helped himself to sleeping passengers’ valuables. Pickpockets are…
“We do what you do,” Bob told the poker-faced pickpocket. “Same job.” Looking at his blank expression, it wasn’t clear that he understood. Perhaps…
Intelligence was leaked: stolen diamonds were to be smuggled out of the country in the cast of a man with a broken limb. The…
“I WANT,” is the driving force behind mugging: need and greed. But these muggers in India also had intangible desires that compelled them to…
“The mere mention of Colon sends shivers down the spines of travelers and Panamanians…” —Lonely Planet on Colon, Panama After the brutal armed robbery…
Beware, pickpockets are working here. That’s the first thing an international visitor sees when entering Sweden at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Face level signs are…
Barcelona pickpocket statistics Barcelona visitors experienced 6,000 thefts per day during 2009’s tourist season. 115,055 pickpocketings and bag snatches in Barcelona were reported in…
Why Thieves Prefer Black Bags Yeah, this story’s everywhere, about the Phoenix couple who made a living stealing luggage off the airport carousel. Police…
Atul and Smriti Shah experienced it first-hand. “It happened during the night,” they concluded. “The entire compartment was sprayed with some sort of gas…
Overnight train travel requires watchfulness. Stations can be seedy. They’re open and available to anyone, with or without tickets. They attract a varied population…
Railway mafia groups fight over territory along the thousands of kilometers of track across Central & Eastern Europe. The most lucrative connections are those…
Anna Bernanke hung her purse on the back of a chair at Starbucks. It was stolen and, soon after, she and Ben became victims…
The Offer of a Flower is a Foil for Filching Palma de Mallorca, Spain— Bob and I trailed a trio of young women through…
Palma de Mallorca, Spain— Thirty to forty women practice this form of filching every day in Palma. They linger where the tourists are: around…
Pickpockets with flowers Palma de Mallorca, Spain— She looks like your grandmother—possibly even your great-grandmother. With a gap-toothed smile, she offers you a single…
I want to wail even in Sweden, because the country has long been perceived as enjoying a relatively low crime rate. And it did….
A restaurant table is a good place to be had. The latest in low-tech scams happened last month in Hoboken, NJ, when a man…
Should Have Left it in the Hotel—Gisela and Ludvig Horst checked into their Barcelona hotel and immediately got into an argument. Gisela did not…
Kharem’s Lucky Haul Kharem, a pickpocket in Spain, sometimes chooses Barcelona’s airport over the rich pickings of the city. When Bob and I again…
“Did you know you’re wearing mismatched shoes?” a well-dressed Englishman said to our friend, Brooks, at London’s Heathrow airport one day. Brooks was talking…
After an eventful overnight train journey we were disgorged into a very foreign Sunday morning. Not a single sign in Prague’s main train terminal…
I wonder if Bob and I should have bodyguards, like Roberto Saviano does. We, like Saviano, write about and expose the Camorra, Naples’ infamous…
A few days ago, a foreigner arrived at Mexico City’s international airport and exchanged money there. What he didn’t know was that he was…
In Johannesburg for a string of corporate shows, we managed to find and talk to three pickpockets, one of whom claimed to be reformed….
Bob and I looked at each other in disbelief. Only we knew the incredible odds we’d just beaten. To stroll into Rome’s Termini, the…
What is a perfect pickpocket victim? Let’s look at the anatomy of a pickpocket victim. I’m thinking of a couple I saw in Barcelona…
Lord and Lady Ball (yes, their real names), enjoyed a week in warm Palma de Mallorca, an annual retreat from the dreary London weather….
Bob Arno, the go-to guy on street scams, was on the NBC Weekend Today show on November 22. He was on Fox & Friends…