So you’ve made it through security. Does that mean you’re in a secure area? Not secure enough to relax your attention. Thieves have been known to buy multi-leg plane tickets and work the gate areas in each airport, never needing to pass security after their initial entry into carefree-land.

You wouldn’t look twice at the couple sitting back-to-back with you in the departure hall. Smartly dressed, stylish bags, composed manner: they look like frequent international travelers—and they are. The troupe arrested in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport were not French, but South American. They, and other sophisticated gangs of thieves take the same international flights as their victims, stay in the same hotels, and attend the same trade shows, sporting events, and operas. “They’re clever, don’t take chances, and do a lot of damage,” a French police officer said. “They keep the cash and sell off everything else—credit cards, passports.”

“These gangs systematically comb all major international airports on both sides of customs,” said an undercover police officer at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. “They often fly between five or six airports on round-trip tickets,” explained the crime prevention coordinator for the military police there.

Many airports around the world have installed camera surveillance, which has cut theft of bags and theft from bags. In Cape Town, for example, while an inbound visitor stood at a car rental counter with his luggage behind him on a trolley, a thief simply lifted one of his bags, popped into a men’s room, changed clothes, and walked out with the stolen property. After leaving it in a waiting car, he returned to the baggage hall to scout for more goodies. It was all caught on tape.

Trains between concourses are another area where personal property goes missing. On these, as well as in airport shops and restaurants, one must maintain vigilance. This is especially difficult for people who don’t travel often and live in small towns where safety is almost a given. Thieves home in on relaxed attitudes like heat-seeking missiles.

What works: keep physical contact with your property.

Excerpt from Travel Advisory: How to Avoid Thefts, Cons, and Street Scams
Chapter Three (part-c): Getting There—With all your Marbles

More about airport theft:
…¢Airport danger and the strategist thief
…¢Laptops lost in airports
…¢Luggage theft at Las Vegas airport carousels