New Pickpocket Scam In Barcelona

A Recent Incident In Barcelona

We’ve visited Barcelona almost a dozen times over the years without any real incidents, but a recent visit got off to a bad start. At 7:30 AM we grabbed a taxi from the airport to our rental apartment just outside the “Old Quarter”.

During the taxi ride our driver, a Pakistani who had lived here for twenty years, told us of an odd incident that had happened to him recently. He was coming back from a trip and walking down a street in central Barcelona with his suitcase when he got splashed with something that came from above. A passerby stopped and said it was a bird that splattered him. In mere seconds he came up with a damp cloth to help clean him up. He was asked to turn around so the stranger could wipe down his back and in an instant the man grabbed his suitcase and ran off and around a corner. By the time he got to the corner the man and the suitcase were nowhere to be seen. “Be careful my friends, this is not the Barcelona of yesterday”

The morning we arrived, after a couple hours sleep, we headed out to visit the “Old Quarter”. Only three or four blocks from our apartment we both got splattered down our backs. We had no idea what had happened but man walking behind us said it was bird droppings from up on the building. He lived just a few doors down and he would go get some wet rags. He was back in just a few seconds and as he wiped the back of my paint leg my wife saw him trying to get his hand into my front pant pocket. She yelled and he backed away. We quickly headed off down the street in the opposite direction..

That was not an accidental encounter but a carefully planned attack. The man was well dressed, clean shaven and probably in his forties. Everything happened so fast that we couldn’t process what was going on and I never felt that he was in my pocket.

Back at the apartment we realized that we were covered in yellowish white globs that smelled a lot like mustard and mayo. Based on the size of the splatter if it had been a bird it would have been the size of a large condor or maybe a flying ostrich. The man probably only failed at his attempted theft because I was wearing pickpocket resistant slacks. On the front of the right leg is a zippered pocket covered by a velcro flap just below the normal right pocket. Inside was several hundred US dollars and Euros along with a credit card and a drivers license. If I need to carry more I also use a pouch that attaches to my belt and it gets tucked inside my paints (the TSA body scanner doesn’t take kindly to leaving the pouch on) and its now looking like we need to start taking more protective efforts.

It’s always a solid idea to think defensively when going out in a new city and especially to avoid crowded areas. It’s called situational awareness.

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