“Leave anything you don’t need, including extra cash, locked in the safe in your room,” the desk clerk advised as we checked into our hotel in Paris. “Pickpocketing here is really bad.”
Problem is, his advice came a little too late.
On the train between the airport and the city itself, I was hit. One of those things that will never happen to me, because I’m way too smart to let it happen!
Here’s how it went down:
As we were approaching one of the multiple stops on our way to the heart of Paris, several people were lining up to leave the train. One of them ‘accidentally’ dropped his coins on us - in our seats and the floor around us.
Because the train is about to stop, he is hastily trying to pick up his coins, and as an unsuspecting tourist, I am happy to either help or get out of the way. Pointing to indicate some of them are in my seat and between me and my wife, he takes my arm and gently pulls me out of the seat and pretends to be looking around for some of his money while still gathering some from the floor.
These are not insignificant coins, mostly one and two euro coins, the general equivalent of dollar bills.
As the train comes to a stop, and he is still acting frantically to pick up what he can, other passengers - possibly his compadres - are bumping into me in the aisle, trying to get out.
Indeed, there is often a bit of a sense of urgency to get on and off the trains in European countries. For the smaller village stops, doors open for about 30 seconds to let passengers off and on, then the doors close and away you go. Very efficient, but doors are not held open.
Because the signal had sounded for the doors to close, the man who had dropped his money rushed out with what he could retrieve, leaving about €2.50 still lying near us. I picked up the coins but felt bad I was holding money that didn’t belong to me.
Probably didn’t belong to him, either. Within about 15 seconds I realized my billfold was no longer in my hip pocket. And the train was already in motion
A classic scam: create chaos, swarm and overwhelm the senses of your victim.
Arg!
Actually a tasty bakery near us! But the name fits this situation.
What I carry in my wallet while traveling is pretty minimal. I leave behind anything I know I will not need. Financially, I carry two credit cards and a debit card. The only reason I have the debit card is that it is my bank’s ATM card. Works nicely for local cash abroad.
I did have a little American cash but just enough for tips at U.S. airports - porters, bus shuttles and such. The credit cards were the concern.
Within about 5 minutes, the credit cards were deactivated. First, my American Express, then my Capital One card.
Reporting a credit card issue is a relatively easy process on a credit card’s app. Navigate the site’s menu, answer a couple of questions, and you are pretty much done - with replacement cards on the way.
If there is any problem with that, it’s the replacement cards are on the way to your home address and you are several thousand miles away.
But this…
While I do not use these stories to promote brands, I will show a little love to Capital One. Because it’s my primary card both at home and away, it is stored digitally in my phone’s wallet.
Reporting that card stolen and needing to be replaced, a digital replacement happened immediately. The app told me so.
Something like, ‘your card has been deactivated and a new card has been issued. You may begin using it immediately.’
Really? I’m halfway across the world. The only way I could use it immediately was if it had been replaced in my phone’s wallet.
I looked. It had. The only thing you can see of a digitally stored card is the last 4 digits, and they were now different.
How they can do that is pure voodoo, but it was a beautiful thing.
Less than an hour later at a small café, I was anxious to check out tap-to-pay from my phone to test my new digital card.
Worked perfectly. I was back in business!
A word about tap-to-pay. That is, holding your card - or in this case, holding your phone where you’ve stored that card - next to a merchant’s card reader. In Europe, this is the primary way to pay in almost shop, restaurant and store, regardless of size.
For some reason, it has not been as widely adapted in the States yet.
Interestingly, I can do it at my local mechanic’s shop and my favorite local bottle shop, but my local Home Depot, Lowes and Kroger do not have it available. A physical card still has to be inserted into a machine.
Because I know the aforementioned chain stores allow tap-to-pay in other cities, I have asked why it is not available at my store, but you are asking a lower-level employee who does not know the answer.
As was the case with chip cards, Europe always seems to be well ahead of us on matters of financial transactions. (We still have way better toilets! I want to bring an American toilet over as a housewarming gift next time I come to Europe.)
The takeaway from this episode:
I don’t blame myself I didn’t steal my wallet, some dirty rotten thieving bastards did.
However, I have to admit I made myself a pretty easy target. I stood several times on the train to look at the train stops map on the wall. Seeing a billfold in my hip pocket was probably quite noticeable. Which brings me to…
Wallet in hip pocket is so yesterday. For this very reason. I rarely do it anymore, but I got careless.
Since I feel like I’ve kept you long enough already, I’ll save the fallout of this incident for my next tale.
But I will tell you I lost a friend. My wallet.
We’ve been together since I bought it in Mexico about 35 years ago. It was worn, slightly tattered and even had a couple of holes in it, but it was 100% leather.
The street vendor I bought it from who was selling blankets, sombreros, shot glasses - and wallets - that day in Cozumel told me so.
Truthfully, I caved to my wife’s insistence and bought a new one recently, but I pulled out my tired old pal for this trip to Europe.
Our last one together, turns out.
Now he’s gone and I’ll be forced to return to the one that hasn’t been sweated on, sat on for decades and gone through the washer a few times. Yet.
But the new billfold is also 100% leather. And handmade.
The street vendor I bought it from selling t-shirts, scarves, shot glasses - and wallets - under a tent, under a bridge on a rainy day in Portugal told me so.