Beware Nicely Dressed Man with Map

There is no more disconcerting experience than being robbed when travelling abroad and it had never happened to me.  That is until I was recently approached in the Greek port of Piraeus by a nicely dressed man bearing a map.

Just off the boat is a phrase sometimes used to suggest you are naïve and I was both literally and metaphorically just off the boat from the islands, travelling alone and with time to kill.

I phoned home to say I had docked and had hours to spare before my flight, slipped my iPhone into my shorts pocket, shouldered my rucksack and trundled my case to a nearby kiosk and bought a bottle of water.  With no need to rush to the X96 bus stop to get the bendy bus to the airport, I sat in a small park behind the kiosk to rehydrate.  My case was beside my foot and my rucksack right alongside me on the bench.

That’s when he appeared, tanned, well dressed, in a pink open-necked shirt and immaculate chinos.  He spread a map before me, with a couple of locations circled and spoke in a language I couldn’t place, certainly not Greek, perhaps on reflection Eastern European.

Maybe he just wanted the bus to Athens Airport?  I looked at the map, shook my head, sorry can’t help.  As he walked away he was still talking to me over his shoulder until he disappeared behind the little wooden kiosk.  And immediately I realised my rucksack had gone.

Disbelief made me race around the kiosk to discover if I had, in fact, left it there when buying the water.  No said the grizzled Greek, and nobody had been to the kiosk since, but he had seen two men hurrying away – one of them wearing a rucksack. 

But for my iPhone and a wonderful port policeman who gave me ten euros,  I would still be in Piraeus now.  Everything was in that rucksack, passport, money, credit cards, camera, ipod, and worst of all my netbook and three memory sticks with all drafts of a three-year writing project.  Yes, I had been out to a writers’ retreat and had lost not just the redraft and two extra chapters but the whole lot.

So what have I learned?  First back up everything I write but as regards travelling, you simply can’t get home without your passport, so lose it and you’ll have to go to the British Embassy and pay almost £100 for another.

No money?  Beyond a lovely Greek policeman, you’ll need someone at home to wire you Western Union to somewhere like an airport post office and you’ll need, if without other identification, an official police report of your loss or theft and the ten digit reference number to get the cash.

Credit and debit cards?  Get someone at home to cancel them pretty damned quick.

Contact the airline to change your flight as you won’t be going home today!

And, now I’d say don’t keep all your personal effects in one bag, perhaps risk ridicule with a dreaded bumbag and don’t trust well-dressed young men – the Romany kids were no problem, they beg and go away, so don’t judge a book by its cover.

Gleaned from my experience and what goes on in Pireaus daily as well as friends’ experiences these are some of the current scams:

• Man with map seeking directions while sidekick lifts your bag.
• Man asking directions and two others purporting to be port police accusing you of buying drugs as a distraction.
• Someone telling you there’s something in your hair – you put down bag, bag gone.
• Back doors of bus left closed, thieves mingle pretending to be tourists, lift bags on (and off) airport bus.
• At cashpoint, money is dropped at your feet, one guy asks if it’s yours, accomplice has noted your number– hey presto, they have number and card while you look down.

And another essential piece of advice – check your insurance policies.  Read the small print and get adequate travel insurance, regularly renewed.  Ensure your house contents insurance has personal effects cover off site and when they send you that damned “Changes to your Policy” letter read it from start to finish.  If you are not covered change your policy and probably your insurer.  You’ll be surprised to find you may well be paying more for less.

Patricia McLoughlin

Posted Tue, 09/27/2011 - 13:52 by Tricia