Have you ever had something stolen on your travels?
@RawBill1 (8531)
Gold Coast, Australia
August 8, 2009 3:09am CST
I have had something of mine stolen while I have been travelling, but it was my own fault! I was looking through my old travelling photos recently and every time that I do, I am reminded of this theft! In 1998 I was working overseas in Lake Tahoe in the USA and after my work finished I travelled across the country to New York, where I flew on to the United Kingdom and China, before returning to Australia. When I finished work, myself and three friends rented a van one way to San Francisco. It was on our second day there that we changed rental cars. We were renting through one of the major worldwide rental car companies (I will not name them but everyone knows them) and we swapped into the car that we were to take for the next two weeks as we explored the west coast of the USA. We had all of our belongings on the ground in their parking garage while we waited for the car to be ready. When it was they reversed the car up to our stuff and we loaded it. We then went down to The Golden Gate Bridge to do some sightseeing and I went looking through the back of the car for my camera. It was not there! My $500 SLR camera and equipment were missing!!! I remembered putting it on the ground at the rental car place, so I figured that it must have been pushed under the car when we loaded it and that we had missed it. We went back there and asked if anyone had seen it. The manager asked all of the people working there and no one at all said that they had! I told them that I knew it was there, but they said that it was not! I had no travel insurance and could not afford to replace it but I had a very old and cheap automatic camera so I could still take photos on the rest of my trip, but the quality of them when I had them developed was bad. When I look through this photo album now, it is really easy to see the difference between the photos from my good camera that was stolen and the cheap one! I really regret having been careless when packing the car, but I am still angry that the staff were not honest!
3 people like this
16 responses
@homeshoppers (6166)
• Philippines
8 Aug 09
my keys lol.. though it was not stolen i left it at the restaurant since i didn't bring my bag that time. i just put it behind my jeans pocket and i took it out and put it on the table while eating. and so i forgot about it coz we are busy talking and we when we left i forgot about it. then while on our way back to the hotel thats the only time i realize that its not in my pocket. so we headed back to the restaurant to check and luckily, the table was already clean and yet our keys still there. though they said that they tried to call the hotel to remind them the we left the key at their restaurant.
3 people like this
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
10 Aug 09
Most hotel keys has its name and the room number on the key itself. She was very lucky to have her key back.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Thanks for sharing your story! :-)
You were very lucky that the staff were honest and that no one else found them. Imagine if someone decided to go and use them to get into your room! I am assuming that they had the hotel and room number on them?
@mssthirdeye (213)
• India
8 Aug 09
it was the start of our 12 day tour, and we had just arrived in one town, which was our base point and start of our journey.
There was a river there, and we decided to have a swim there.,
As soon as my son (aged 8 yrs) saw the river he began to undress to take a swim,
and he just jumped into the river;
The river water was just gushing out, as it had just rained the day before, my son who had jumped, slipped his drop and was starting to drown,
I immediately removed my pant, and went in to save him.
After returning I saw my pant had just vanished, along with it had gone my wallet, creditcards, identity cards, around 8000 dollars.
I was left with very little money and had to tour more 10days, luckily my wife and my mom had brought some money, and we just about finished our trip.
I really can forget that day
3 people like this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Thanks for sharing your story! That is a cruel blow! 8000 dollars seems like a lot of money to have on you at once! I guess that it is better to lose your money than your son though! You are very lucky to have been able to save him! :-) That is the main thing.
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
8 Aug 09
That sucks and what a downer to have something like this happen. It's especially bad to think that dishonest staff were responsible. 
My Father had his car broken into in Paris and a few suits and other luggage items taken, but I've been very fortunate so far and have never had anything stolen from me to dat. (Touch wood). I don't have travel insurance and have never taken it out before, even though I do get around a bit.
My Father had his car broken into in Paris and a few suits and other luggage items taken, but I've been very fortunate so far and have never had anything stolen from me to dat. (Touch wood). I don't have travel insurance and have never taken it out before, even though I do get around a bit. 2 people like this
@IMEzekieL (498)
•
9 Aug 09
Have you ever reported it to the police?
(It must be cool to track down the thief with the law-heads.)
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Glad you have never had that misfortune James! I imagine that Egypt would be a bad place for travellers to be stolen from, but I could be wrong!
This page is all stretched sideways when I view it! Does anyone else see this or just me?
1 person likes this
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
10 Aug 09
I also experience the sideways stretching of this page when I am reading it. Its not just you, you are not alone.
@cbeee3 (2061)
• India
8 Aug 09
Oh my God!! Who else lost an SLR camera? You are reading her post right now!
. I am sorry that you had to go through that.
In my case my ex and I were on a trip, from Atlanta to New York and then to Niagara. There was a pit stop in between on our route from NY to Niagara (it was a bus trip).
My ex took a bunch of pics and I was holding our camcorder, so I was shooting with that.We than grabbed something to eat and then it was time to board the bus.
In the bus I was checking what I shot on the camcorder.
All of a sudden I realized I could not see our SLR.I asked him and he says, its with me.Then we searched like mad.We were traveling with another couple,they searched too.
I then looked at a part of the video I had shot, we left the camera on a bench!!!!!
God knows who's lucky day it was
So it didn't get stolen, but SLR gone
. I am sorry that you had to go through that.
In my case my ex and I were on a trip, from Atlanta to New York and then to Niagara. There was a pit stop in between on our route from NY to Niagara (it was a bus trip).
My ex took a bunch of pics and I was holding our camcorder, so I was shooting with that.We than grabbed something to eat and then it was time to board the bus.
In the bus I was checking what I shot on the camcorder.
All of a sudden I realized I could not see our SLR.I asked him and he says, its with me.Then we searched like mad.We were traveling with another couple,they searched too.
I then looked at a part of the video I had shot, we left the camera on a bench!!!!!
God knows who's lucky day it was
So it didn't get stolen, but SLR gone @RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
OH NO!! That must have been really weird seeing it on film but not able to go back and get it! If only time travel was available to us, what a difference that would make!!!
I went to Niagara falls later in my trip and the photos that I took there on my cheap replacement camera were absolute rubbish unfortunately. :-(
@canadamom (71)
• United States
8 Aug 09
We have a photo in frame taken when we were in Europe. The value was zero but the value in sentimental was huge. My family took that photo in frame everywhere of a special person in our lives. Never did know why it was taken from our motel room and nothing else was gone.
2 people like this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
That is really weird and such a shame that you lost something that could not be replaced! Why people do things like this is beyond me! Thanks for sharing your story. :-)
@AznBombr1022 (76)
• United States
8 Aug 09
i never travel anywhere ever so i dont think i could get any of my things stolen for me at all. i would like to go traveling somewhere if i had the money to maybe i would get something stolen for me hope not
2 people like this
@doggyhouz (548)
• United States
9 Aug 09
You should make a note of stuff you've bring before leaving and then do a check list when your leaving the place to come back home. That way you are sure you didn't forget to bring it back. I rather forget to bring something than to bring something and then lose it. I usually get very frustrated when I lose something. I might just get violent as well. I just let it get the best of me.
2 people like this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
AznBombr, you must travel when you get the chance! I was overseas for six months and it was definately a life changing experience for the better! You do not have to go far or spend loads of money though, visiting places unknown to you close by is still a great experience! Thanks for your comment! :-)
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
That is a great idea to have a checklist of everything you have so that you can make sure you have everything before you leave your accomodation! I have left loads of small items behind in rooms over the years!
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
9 Aug 09
I alsohave travelled into other places around my home country and in other Asian countries like Thailand, Singapore and China. I don't have any things stolen from me during my travels though I have lost my passport during my third travel in Singapore last year due to my carelessness! I went shopping on supposed last day of my stay in Singapore. I had so many shopping bags in my both hands that day and I decided to go to Singapore Visitors' Centre. I was talking to a staff there and asking about the Food Festival. They gave me a brochure sampler and asked for my passport. I thought that I put back my passport into my bag but I didn't know that I dropped it there. The next day, I was looking for my passport as I should be leaving. Thats the only time I realized that my passport was missing. I went to the last place where I have been. They said that they brought my passport together with the other lost passports in the police station. I called my friend to drive for me and to accompany me to get my passport back. We went into two police stations. I got interrogated by the Singaporean policemen. I got my passport back from the second police station that we went. I am so lucky to have my passport back to me!
1 person likes this
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
10 Aug 09
Yes I was pretty lucky though I have missed my flight going to Hong Kong but whats important is that I got my passport back.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
13 Aug 09
It is not a good feeling when you miss a flight is it! It happened to me once and I had to wait six hours for the next one! Yes, getting your passport back was the main thing! :-)
Thanks for all of your comments here! :-)
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Thanks for sharing your great story Sophie! That is amazing that you got your passport back, you must have been really worried there for a while! What a relief in the end though! :-)
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
8 Aug 09
My travel photos are special to me and I am very fond of my digital camera that has an excellent zoom. Therefore I feel so sorry to hear that when you look at your travel photos you can see the difference in quality. It was so upsetting for you to have found out your camera was stolen in California. The Golden Gate Bridge is such an amazing sight so to realize your really good camera was missing when you arrived there must have been really disappointing. The staff were dishonest so that was terrible.
I have lost a few things on my travels but I am not sure that they were stolen. In Tunisia I lost my coat from the hotel I was staying at. When I was camping in Slovenia by the beach I lost my personal stereo. I was sad to have it go missing because I loved the cassette that was in it. A year or so later in a charity shop I bought the disk the same as the tape I had lost.
Travel insurance is vital for trips to America. Medical costs there are very high so it acts as a safe guard just in case.
2 people like this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Thanks for your comments! I also lost the photos that I had taken that were still in the camera, which was a shame too as they were from inside Alcatraz prison! It is good that you could replace the things that you had go missing. In hindsight, I maybe should have had some travel insurance, but when you are young and travelling on a budget, it does not seem too important!
@renitaperrone (547)
• United States
13 Aug 09
That is awful. My husband had his cell phone stolen when it fell out of his pocket in the airplane. We had walked just a shortways in the airport to catch our next flight when we realized it and went back. They let him back on the plane to search for it but it was gone. Not a huge expense, but a huge inconvenience. Fortunately we realized it quickly and put service on hold until the phone was replaced so no one could be making international calls and running up our bill on it.
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
13 Aug 09
Hi, thanks for your response! Someone obviously found his phone just like they found my camera! It is a real shame that people cannot be honest when they find things and hand them in! It would have been easy to find the owner of the phone on a plane because of the limited number of people on the flight! Even if you did not realise straight away, you would have had a good chance of getting it back if it was handed in!
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
8 Aug 09
Hi RawBill, I had my bag snatched in Paris late one night up at Montmart. My friend and I had taken a long weekend break there and after enjoying some snails and the view we ended up finishing the evening having drinks with the most georgous French opera singer. As he was walking us back to the underground my bag was cut off my shoulder so quickly I didn't even realise it had happened. The French man took off after him but the thief was too swift. Luckily my passport was locked in the suitcase back at the hotel but the key for said suitcase was in the stolen bag so I had to get the man on reception to break into it for me. We spent a fascinating hour the next morning in the local police station.
2 people like this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Another Paris incident! That must have been quite scary for you! It is amazing how daring some thieves can be! Very lucky you did not lose your passport. Thanks for sharing your story. :-)
@haiershen (1080)
• China
29 Oct 09
i often forget soemthing on my traveling, but nothing was stolen while my travel,but my uncle did, some years ago, when my uncle form his working place to hometown by train, when i get on train, he fell very tired and sleeping soundly in a while,he put his wallet in his coat pocket which was cover on himself,but very unlucky, when he wake up, his walet was stolen, it is very annoying thing which was meet on traveling. good luck and have a nice day!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
29 Oct 09
Thanks for sharing! That is a very unfortunate story about your uncle. I can remember people falling asleep on trains regularly when I traveled on them to work. I always wondered if they would miss their stop!
@doggyhouz (548)
• United States
9 Aug 09
Some responder ruined your frame on your post. I hate people like that just isn't really worth bothering at all. Such annoyance. But I have lost stuff when I went traveling away from home. Not just going to the ball park or the park or zoo. But over to a different state. I lost my phone before and it was a horrible feeling to still be able to use your phone but lost it. It feels worse than losing your phone at home town. You can at least still get home. But image no phone and you lose your friends or family and you have to spend about 5 dollars for 2 min phone call to someone that may not pick up because its not your phone number and never get found.
Its a bummer.
God bless
1 person likes this
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
10 Aug 09
My brother have the same habit of losing his phone in our house. We also try to ring it to find his phone!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
10 Aug 09
My wife left her phone at a friends house she was visiting as I wrote about her losing it here! LOL, It is a 3 hour return drive to go and get it!!!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Yes I know, it is really annoying to read this page!
Losing your phone is annoying too, my wife always loses hers, but it is usually somewhere at home and we find it by ringing it! I left mine in a store once and went back about 4 hours later to find that it was still on the shelf where I left it!!! :-) Thanks for sharing!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
9 Aug 09
It's happened to me as well, only it was my wallet and all of my money. I was in 8th grade, 14 years old and we had taken a class trip to Washington, DC. We were in a T-shirt shop and I had picked out some T-shirts for my family and a few friends that didn't get to go. I got to the register and went to get my money out only to discover that it was all gone. Luckily I had some friends that helped me pay for the shirts. And later, because this was the first day of the trip, my dad, who worked for the federal government prison system was able to get in touch with one of the ladies he'd worked with at home who was also a good friend of his who brought me some money to get me through the rest of the trip. That is the reason that I don't care to ever go to DC again.
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
It was lucky that you had help there or the whole trip would have been ruined!
That reminds me, the same trip a week or so later, we were in Las Vegas and one of my friends went to buy something after we had just walked along the busy streets and found that his wallet was missing from his jacket pocket. He remembered bumping into someone but did not think anything of it. He was the victim of a pickpocketer!
The poor guy had to spend the whole night on the phone back to Australia, cancelling credit cards and getting money wired to him!
@tvij122 (4)
• United States
9 Aug 09
Not nearly as serious as that, but I went to Rome once and was traveling on a transit bus and was sitting next to this young boy. He kept staring at me, but I initially thought nothing of it. Most of the time I was looking out the window just to see the sights. It was raining that day. So the bus comes to a stop, the boy grabs an umbrella and runs of the bus. Thinking that was weird, I looked around and realized he took my umbrella! I jumped up but the bus had already started rolling to leave. I look outside and there is the boy already using my umbrella with a huge grin across his face. I wasn't even mad, he was too slick.
1 person likes this
@sophie_dfuss (2365)
• Philippines
9 Aug 09
The little boy didn't mean anything but he needs an umbrella because its raining!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
The cheeky little rascal!!! LOL I think that I would have been mad for a minute or two and then found it funny. Thanks for sharing that. :-)
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
29 Oct 09
Hello Raw. It is a great loss of yours years ago with the missing of it on your trip. I did not lose anything special, but some snacks in a big plastic bag on a train. I found it gone before I was going to get off the train I was taking. Anyway it was not a big deal for me because it was not something expensive.
But I did get my wallet stolen by a young man sitting next to me while I was waiting for the departure of the bus. It contained a lot of money and my bank cards. It was annoying to me when I found it stolen, but could not get it back.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
29 Oct 09
Thanks for sharing your stories. 
My friend who I was traveling with on the same trip had his wallet stolen out of his pocket in Las Vegas only two weeks after my camera went missing! He spent the whole night on the phone back to Australia canceling all his cards and organising his parents to send him some more money.
My friend who I was traveling with on the same trip had his wallet stolen out of his pocket in Las Vegas only two weeks after my camera went missing! He spent the whole night on the phone back to Australia canceling all his cards and organising his parents to send him some more money. @IMEzekieL (498)
•
9 Aug 09
None so far but I remember losing something, not because of the issue of stealing, but because of my damn carelessness. Like most normal people, I tend to forget sometimes. Traveling is exciting and because of that excitement, I forgot to bring something important with me. And now it's lost!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
9 Aug 09
Thanks for your comment! That is a shame!
It feels so bad when you lose something, particularly when it is something of sentimental value to you! I replaced my camera with the same model when I returned home, but the bad photos from the cheap camera in my album can never be changed!
