Buenos Aires crime

[Jasecoop]

hi all, currently in Buenos Aires for the weekend before flying to joburg. Always get a bad feeling about the place and hence try to be careful. last night before going to dinner i decided to clean my wallet to bare essentials just in case.

The perception proved right today with my first run in with the infamous pick pockets. Walking with a colleague to a restaurant for lunch we felt what we thought was bird cough on our backs and promply there was a lady there with napkins and water there to help. another guy then came to help, they helped and then left. Thought nothing of it except that its meant to be good luck right. We walked past a bus and the driver came out to talk to us. He tried to tell us something about pickpockets and he had been watching. We checked our pockets and wallets and phone were there.
We arrived at the restaurant and thought i would check the contents of my wallet, all good. My colleague says that he always keeps his wallet in his front pocket for that reason, takes his wallet out from his pocket, opens it, no money!
Must take some skill to get it out and put it back

Moral of the story, when walking in Buenos Aires, always carry your own tissues

 

[v8Statesman]

hi all, currently in Buenos Aires for the weekend before flying to joburg. Always get a bad feeling about the place and hence try to be careful. last night before going to dinner i decided to clean my wallet to bare essentials just in case.

The perception proved right today with my first run in with the infamous pick pockets. Walking with a colleague to a restaurant for lunch we felt what we thought was bird cough on our backs and promply there was a lady there with napkins and water there to help. another guy then came to help, they helped and then left. Thought nothing of it except that its meant to be good luck right. We walked past a bus and the driver came out to talk to us. He tried to tell us something about pickpockets and he had been watching. We checked our pockets and wallets and phone were there.
We arrived at the restaurant and thought i would check the contents of my wallet, all good. My colleague says that he always keeps his wallet in his front pocket for that reason, takes his wallet out from his pocket, opens it, no money!
Must take some skill to get it out and put it back

Moral of the story, when walking in Buenos Aires, always carry your own tissues

This is the flagship story for all Americans wanting the right to bare arms

Seriously. Lucky they just wanted money and didn't hold you up in a violent robbery!

 

[Jasecoop]

This is the flagship story for all Americans wanting the right to bare arms

Seriously. Lucky they just wanted money and didn't hold you up in a violent robbery!

The guy i was with is american. The thing is, they could do this all day. By putting the wallet back you dont know until after they leave.

It was lucky it wasnt violent and they didnt take his cards. Also he only had 40 pesos there so no real loss, cheap lesson

 

[rechoboam]

In these places especially in tourist areas people invading your personal space to offer you flowers/clean your jacket/show you their baby should always be considered an attempt to steal unless proven otherwise.

As soon as I'm approached I put my hand on my wallet and move away. Once someone did something quite similar to this and I asked him if he thought he was really going to be able to steal my money. He seemed apologetic especially after the locals I was with berated him.

 

[casanovawa]

Yeah i lost my wallet in BA a couple of months back, on the third day of a 2.5 months round the world trip...

Total PITA to have to cancel the cards and all, took me 1.5 months of the trip to finally get somewhere near getting the saga over...

Will write about it soon when i get to doing a TR...

No money really lost but yes, lesson learnt... In fact a few of them...

 

[UP4014]

The bird cough one is a good one, that one happens on both sides of the Andes.

 

[oobi doobi]

Same thing happened to my wife and i some 2 years ago. Walking to the recoletto cemetery to view Evitas grave and suddenly feel a wetness on head. Immediately a man and woman are pointing to so called bird **** on our backs and started wiping us down while seperating us. The bloke was constantly going for my back pocket when the wife screamed out it was a scam and i pushed the guy away and fronted them.

Mrs oobi doobi had used her time flying from Madrid reading lonely planet which alerted her to the scam. They quickly scurried away with no loss of wallet thank god. There was no one else on the street at the time and we had passed these two some minutes before. The next day in front of the presidential palace an american couple said they had been robbed in the same scam. They have a small plastic bottle which they squirt a grey liquid out of onto your back.

Be careful walking in B.A.

 

[auriga]

This particular scam is very well covered by various forums, as well as travel books. It is good to be aware of them, but on the other hand, not be too paranoid, otherwise travelling won't be much fun if you view everyone with suspicion. Reading about these dramas on tripadvisor made me rather wary prior to getting to Buenos Aires, but luckily, my whole stay was uneventful.

 

[MatF]

It's such a shame these kind of things can ruin a holiday - we had a smiliar issue in Italy last year (didn't lose anything), and Mrs MatF had her bag containing her passport stolen some years before, also in Italy. Thankfully once the gypsys realised her bag only had her passport in it, they gave it back

 

[clifford]

Buenos Aires is actually not too bad if you are sensible.

If you don't think so, try Mexico City, Sao Paulo or Santiago de Chile (where you can easily be robbed on a bus). And if that isn't scary enough, you can always go to Rio...

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I never had a problem in BA (was there for 1 month in early 2001).

 

[Alanslegal]

And in China, just watch out for pickpockets using chopsticks

example1:-

chopstick thief - YouTube

 

[juddles]

....

Be careful walking in B.A.....

Be careful walking anywhere. But use commonsense. As previously has been posted, if you get too paranoid it sucks the fun out.

Maybe carry a dummy wallet full of Monopoly money??

 

[Canny man]

Jeez, the old ones are the best ones. I had a guy in BA try that on me in 93. Bird cough, tissues wipe wipe, wallet grab.
Alas for him, years of ju-jitsu kicked in and all he got was a very sore wrist and a kick in the guts for his trouble.
Then I saw all his mates running to his aid.
Then years of cowardice kicked in and I legged it.

 

[docjames]

Nil issues for us - avoiding large crowds etc helpful, but we walked around most of the "touristy" areas without any trouble at all. We didnt go out to 3am in the morning though, but walked to dinner etc no problems at all.

 

[Jasecoop]

Nil issues for us - avoiding large crowds etc helpful, but we walked around most of the "touristy" areas without any trouble at all. We didnt go out to 3am in the morning though, but walked to dinner etc no problems at all.

think it has to do with luck. night before, went for dinner on the same route and had a feeling something could happen and didnt. when it happened was 12 noon, didnt think anything would happen. thing is you never know