They say most crimes against tourists down here happen due to carelessness on the part of the victim, rather than any particular criminal acumen on the part of the perpetrator.
On the day one hundred dollars were taken from my pocket without my knowledge, I made the following mistakes:
- I had one hundred dollars in my pocket in the first place.
- I opted to ride public transportation after retrieving said money from the ATM machine, rather than return home first to drop off all but twenty of it.
- I put the money in my zippered pants pocket, rather than the hidden pocket located on the interior of my pants.
- I stood obliviously on the packed bus while a velcro flap on my pants was lifted, a zipper unzipped and a hand reached in to relieve me of my currency.
Given the clearly substantial skills of the pickpocketer in question, number four is the one I had the least amount of control over. It’s also the one I’ve beaten myself up for unfairly ever since, as it’s a terrible feeling to realize what a clear, oblivious mark I must’ve been. I’m thankful my one experience with theft was entirely non-violent, but still wouldn’t have complained had I not learned this lesson.
On the positive side, I work for a small newspaper:
Wednesday, 24. December 2008
Sorry to hear about that. Sucks.
How’s the Foosball going? Are they any good down there?
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Thursday, 25. December 2008
Great to hear from you this morning -Merry Christmas to you and your friends - & wishes for everyones safety. Amazing that CNN hasn’t picked up the story yet- cool to see your name and reporter as the descriptive! Miss you & have fun in the next adventure..never have seen the actual newspaper yet - hope you sent or kept copies - they ae going to miss you..first leg of journey was great?
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Thursday, 25. December 2008
Canadian gingers have cause for alarm? ha.
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Friday, 26. December 2008
hahahaha. I am a sick woman for laughing at your being pickpocketed……but the material here made me laugh enough distrubed a family card game and get shhhhhhhhhhhhh’d.
miss you!
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Friday, 26. December 2008
lol. Sweet english col. there should be words between enough and disturbed.
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Saturday, 27. December 2008
Quito buses! Told ya to watch out!! ;D
Don’t worry — lesson learned, and you won’t forget again.
//craig in istanbul, turkey — travelvice.com
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Tuesday, 6. January 2009
sorry to hear that happened - but think of the children! yancy, you just feed them till 2011…sir I commend you, you are a saint in mans sandals.
keep spreading the herpes, much love.
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Wednesday, 7. January 2009
LOL I would never make it in Quito! I can’t even hold onto my purse at a bosco show!
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Sunday, 18. January 2009
That sucks but as you said - better to be pick-pocketed than mugged and possibly attacked! It had to be a feeling of “WTF?!” when you realized, but certainly preferable to the alernative!
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Wednesday, 20. May 2009
HAHAHA! My favorite part, did anyone else notice the headline underneath Yancy’s mention? “Canadian Gingers Have Cause for Alarm!” Hahahaha.
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