It has never happened to me....

I agree to find that behaviour of careless projection very strange.

If it comes to rules I really do not appreciate any opportunistic behaviour of breaking rules just for fun or individual advantage. In extreme situations I tend to intervene. Currently the misbehavour of e-scooter drivers in Berlin is significant, especially by tourists - and they know the rules because they are communicated in the renting apps.

When it comes to crime I am a fan of concrete numbers. Of course 20,000 reported pickpocket cases in Berlin sounds a lot but these are around 55 cases a day in an agglomeration with nearly 5m people and over 13m visitors a year - so even safer than a lot of other countries / city destinations.

A very concrete example happened to myself when my whole cam equipment was robbed in Stockholm (4k EUR). I was just coming over from Norway which has nearly no crime and I made the mistake not to switch back to "secure mode" because Sweden has several special crime warnings. The insurance paid the financial damage (thanks!) but the memory cards of the cameras with over 14,000 pictures were lost - really a heartbreaking situation for me as hobby photographer. By the way: Swedish police never showed up even after calling them. Just interviewed me on the phone and sent a "we give up search" letter which reached Germany faster than I was driving home. This was a real cultural shock for me as a German.

Since that time I always have a mobile hard drive with me which makes a backup of the photos on SD cards every evening (no computer needed). Maybe as tip for others.

I don’t think this was meant to apply to you, a very experienced traveler. These are examples of comments from people with little experience.

I don't recall ever reading any comments suggesting that people don't believe something in particular such as pickpocketing, is going to happen to them. What I do see a lot of comments is that the perception of the risk is far greater than the reality. Reading some (many) posts here anyone would think that there are gangs of Fagin type characters lurking on every street corner in every European city waiting to pounce on every unsuspecting American and quickly relieve them of the contents of their fanny pack, some of us just like to point out the reality but no-one has ever claimed that such crime does not exist or that because it hasn't happened to them it couldn't possibly happen to anyone else.

No-one is saying that people don't get pickpocketed or that nobody has ever been stopped at customs (typically people explain that customs is not the same as immigration or border control, a common misconception on here, and that is what people are referring to when they state that customs is a simple walk through).

I'm afraid it appears that you're making something out of nothing here Frank.

pickpocketing probably has never happened to me because I do exercise common sense and good judgement. But even if it does they get 40 Euros... I will live.

Now I don't worry about customs because if they want to search me there's nothing there to worry about.

I don't worry about the sizer because my bag is the right size.

Your assumption seems to be that we aren't worried about it happening because we believe it won't happen to us. When in fact we aren't worried because there's not much risk involved if it does.

Customs is just a walk through and no one gets stopped.
It did happen to me ~3 years ago, at St Pancras station of all places. They insisted I emptied my one bag. I complained they were wasting my time.
Back in the "bad old days" before they abolished customs restrictions within the EU (1980's) I got my car searched a few times driving through Dover (arriving on a ferry from France), and on the Dutch-German border.
Nowadays it is so rare, it is safe to say you are "95%+ likely not to get stopped".

My bag has never had to go in the sizer so don't worry about it
That is a regular occurrence, I would never say that is rare.

We have never been pickpocketed or seen any pickpockets so why worry about it
Once, over 10 years ago. I was in a rush, came out of a shop with my wallet quickly stuffed in my pocket. Next time I looked it was gone. To this day I don't know if it was pickpocketed or it just fell out.

I had an interesting day in London recently. I was in Islington on a drizzly Wednesday and ended up casually strolling, not along a direct path, between two Tube stations. In the lobby of one of the stations there was a large, officially-produced, free-standing, sign warning about motorized phone thieves. It said there were XXX thefts a month in the area. I think the figure was 300, but it might have been 200. In either case that's a lot of body-threatening thefts per day in the area (however "area" is defined).

That very same day, less than a mile away, I glanced down at the sidewalk as I walked past a bus stop--a bus had just pulled away--and saw a large woman's wallet. When the staffer at the estate agency where I dropped it off looked through it, there seemed to be no currency at all, so I'm nearly certain the wallet was dropped by a pickpocket.

There's bad stuff happening in a lot of the most popular tourist destinations. Like Frank II, I have noticed the occasional "It's never happened to me" comment and hoped the person inquiring wouldn't take that as a reason not to be careful. And I'm not about to suggest to someone with a too-large "carry-on" bag that there's nothing to worry about. My attitude toward such situations is that I want to know what the potential problems are so I can take reasonable precautions against them. Although I recognize that it is human nature, I try to fight the urge to redefine inconvenient truths as not-truths.

saw a large woman's wallet

Didn't know there were specific wallets based on the size of the woman. ;-)

Nice of you to turn it in anyway. There may have been other things of importance to the owner still in it.

Frank II Thanks for posting this.

As you can see, Frank ll, your well laid out logic didn’t fly! I agree with you!

Now, Mark, if I had wanted to say the wallet belonged to a big wonan, I would have written "large-woman's wallet". But perhaps there is a comma missing.

The wallet was stuffed with cards and must have belonged to a local, because no tourist would carry around something that bulky. I'm certain it got back to the owner, missing only whatever cash she had been carrying. It could have been a lot worse.

Thanks, Frank, for raising these issues of illogical thinking that arise regularly on this forum. I’ll add two more, which are my particular pet peeves. Keep in mind, everyone, the ratio of cost and inconvenience to risk, to penalty mentioned by another poster.
1: The idp. For an item that costs less than $30 and can be acquired at any AAA office, this provokes a ridiculous amount of discussion. Cost, minimal; risk, low; penalty if you need it and don’t have it, very high. Forget about all those people who say they have never needed it. Irrelevant. Just do it!

2: Insurance. This issue is more complex. Because there are several dimensions to it, each should really be considered separately. If you are traveling independently and have prudently not made reservations that can’t be cancelled, you should probably forego trip cancellation insurance. It is expensive, and most of us can absorb the cost of plane tickets.
The same goes for theft and loss of luggage. Fairly uncommon occurrences; and, if you heeded the advice to leave expensive belongings at home, absorbable costs. Besides, your home owners’ may cover.
Now, for the big one, medical insurance. The cost and risk are low; but if you are so unfortunate as to incur an accident, your liability can be enormous. Example: a friend stepped off a curb in Paris, tripped, and sustained a double compound fracture of her ankle. She had bought medical insurance, including evacuation. After surgery and a couple of days in hospital, the insurance paid for her and her husband and daughter to fly home in business class. That would all, certainly have run into several tens of thousands of dollars, a cost most of us would find hard to bear. Bottom line is that Joe Blow’s never needing medical insurance is completely irrelevant. Just think about the potential cost to you.

True...it has not ever happened to me.

The carry-on piece has never been measured by the sizer, was never questioned as to its size, and always went through.

Going through customs in FRA or Paris or London has always been a breeze, always a walk through, never stopped, mostly I don't see anyone at that check point after going through Immigration, Returning from Europe I've had my luggage opened up only once by US Customs...just wasted their time. That was at SFO in 1977.. I always remember that incident.

Never got the SSSS on the boarding pass either.

Never have been pickpocketed while traveling solo in Europe. The only one successful pickpocket incident ("they" got some cash) was in eastern Berlin in 1995, when I was with the Mrs. Never happens when I am alone. . There was one attempt (unsuccessful..."they" got nothing) in the Paris Metro in 1999.

Never told by TSA to step aside for additional screening, security check, questioning , etc. or even in pre-TSA days.

For the most part, I don't concern myself with other people's attitudes toward common sense issues such as this. In fact, when it comes to pickpockets, I'd prefer to be standing beside a guy with his wallet in his back pocket since it means he's likely more of a target to a thief than me.

I don't know how many of you are also on the RS Travel page on Facebook, but a lot of those responses can be so careless and irresponsible compared to this forum. I would say a more common answer to a pickpocket question would be as Frank II described. If someone does bring a concern to this forum in regard to pickpockets, safety, insurance, etc. I strongly believe it deserves a thoughtful and common sense response to help them put their mind at ease and to help educate them about common sense approaches that can help the travel experience.

" Prepare for things to happen and be glad when they don't."

The best advice on traveling Frank II.

there seemed to be no currency at all, so I'm nearly certain the wallet was dropped by a pickpocket.

My wife very rarely has any cash in her purse and it would most likely resemble the one you found so simply because a wallet or purse is without cash doesn't necessarily mean it has been stolen.

One thing I do find interesting is the frequent inconsistency with the spelling of city/country names. The main ones are Sevilla instead of Seville and then referring to Spain instead of España or Roma and then Italy instead of Italia. If you're going to write in English and use English spellings for the majority of cities/countries you're writing about why throw in the odd native spelling for no obvious reason, it simply comes across as a bit "know it all". Pure pedantry I know but still.....

For years after 9/11, I just happened to be the “random” person selected for extra security checks every time we travelled overseas and were heading back from Europe. On one trip, I was randomly selected 3 times at the same airport for the same flight, the first time was while waiting to check in. Had to go into a room where everything got hand searched. It got so bad that my wife and I boarded separately so she wasn’t held up. We joked about it since it happened every trip.

Otherwise, she got pickpocketed at the main door to St. Peter’s Basilica.

On a British Airways flight once, my wife had to put her purse into a backpack otherwise the agent wasn’t going to let her take one or the other. Later, on the same flight, a guy walked up with 2 carry-on sized bags and the agent let him go right through. On another BA flight, they weighed carry-on bags for some, but not for others. In that case, my petite 120 pound wife had to shove something into her checked bag to get it under the weight limit, while a 200 pound plus gentleman was simply allowed to pass.

A couple of weeks ago someone posted a news story about a family who
couldn’t travel because their hotel room was trashed and the safe
containing their passports was taken. -The fact, and is a fact, that
this type of incident is so rare as to not really be worth worrying
about didn’t come into any of the discussions.

Seriously? Of course it’s worth a discussion because it could happen and because it is so rare makes it topical. Preparation for all events is realistic. I highly doubt my house will burn down, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t teach the kids what to do in case it caught fire. I doubt I’m going to die suddenly, but I do plan for it with a Will and Life Insurance. Sometimes it takes a rare but high-profile occurrence to get people discussing possibilities instead of taking the ostrich approach and planting your head in the ground. No, I’m not going to fret over it, but it works as a solid reminder about common sense planning to minimize catastrophic events such as that robbery. Personally, after reading that story on the forum, I started a related post as a reminder to check your travel insurance-credit card or other, so you understand what is not covered, such as loss of cash, or trip interruption from getting robbed. I think some people just assume that trip interruption covers you for everything when in fact it is very limited when it comes catastrophic incidents besides health. Like it or not, stuff happens and so a little bit of pre-planning and the occasional reminder can help minimize the risk.

Seriously? Of course it’s worth a discussion because it could happen and because it is so rare makes it topical. Preparation for all events is realistic.

I've decided not to travel to the US anymore as I'm unable to obtain a concealed carry licence or legally buy a gun in order to protect me from the massive threat of being shot by a complete stranger.

That's the comparison that highlights the absurdity. Hyperbole serves no purpose.

I worry most about my checked bag getting delayed. It's happened to me more than a couple times, usually on a connecting flight. I was on a large tour (100 people, in 3 groups of 30+ each, 3 guides and an organizer) that went to Malta (3 hour non-stop flight) and the organizer's checked bag didn't arrive. He got it back intact weeks after the tour - it had been mistagged to a flight to Scandanavia! That's why I always ask to see the tag before it disappears on the conveyor belt.

So everything I need for the first 48 hours on the ground goes in my carry on, along with anything that would be too difficult, too expensive or too time-consuming to replace. I also advise couples with two bags to mix their stuff into two "ours" bags, not one hers and one his, until they arrive at their destination. I bet on the odds (which are heavily in my favor) that my bag and I will be reunited at some point. In the meantime, I can manage for a lot longer than 48 hours with what I have, if need be.

MarkK Losing photos is my nightmare scenario and I am so sorry that happened to you. I enjoy planning trips, I enjoy being on them, but the lasting memories are what I have forever - and a way to share with friends. That's a major reason I travel with a notebook computer - I try to back up my photos every night and when a card fills up, I stash it away from the camera gear.

One great thing about carrying only 12 lbs., or less, in a shoulder bag, bag inspections are easy and don't last more than a few minutes. I don't get inspected often but was once because I had a small gargoyle statue for my son, from Notre Dame, in my bag. They asked about it and dug it out.

I had to put my bag in the sizer for a RyanAir flight in May. Normally they take one look at my bag and say something like, "That's it?". When I flew to Copenhagen on SAS, they walked around the gate area and checked anyone's bag that looked stuffed (both for size and weight). They had a pretty good eye, almost everyone they checked was either oversize or weight. I personally prefer airlines to consistently enforce their own rules.

I lost a camera on a bus in Munich. I really can't say whether it was stolen or I simply had too many things to keep track of? Since then I've gone with a "one handle" rule, everything is packed in one bag and I'm only keeping track of one handle. Now my biggest loss risk is leaving something behind in my room.

Funny, I'm not a nervous flyer. In my Air Force days there were a few times I thought I was going to die. Back then each flight started with a prayer, just before engine start, "God, get me home safe. If not, take care of my family." When I got out, I figured if I never flew again, it would be fine. Flying is still the best way to get places, so I fly often. Still looking forward to retirement and sailing to Europe.

Admittedly, I did lose my camera on the train in 1999, actually I rushed off the train and left it on the seat, a simple Canon 35 mm SureShot, when the train pulled into Lüneburg. Now, with a digital camera it goes into the fanny/waist belt, so the possibility of leaving it on a train seat is no longer there. In 1999 I didn't wear an Eagle Creek waist belt., didn't know about it then.

I go by the odds. Less likely or more likely...does that include an attempt even if unsuccessful. If an attempt was made to pickpocket me with the result of nothing lost, ie the bad guy ended up frustrated since he got nothing desirable, should that be counted as an occurrence?

I'm betting that going solo I won't be pickpocketed, (2), I won't get that "dreaded SSSS" or (3), have my carry-on opened up by TSA for further inspection, be it at random or under the guise of such a claim.

The most problematic instances of these "my own experience" extrapolations are car rentals (everything related to it) and exceptions on transportation providers' rules.

Car rental issues are particularly troublesome, I try to reply whenever I see those posts concerning:

• insurance provided by credit card
• ZTL's [Italy] are "advisory only", "I drove in and out and never bothered paying"
• cross-border rentals into Eastern Europe, in and out of Swizterland, in and out of Islands (other than Sicilia) without proper documents
• all sorts of advice on "just go with the flow" regarding traffic rules

Other than car rentals, the most serious misleading tips are those about separate-ticket flight connections, most people that attempt that end up making it, and then sometimes recommend it as a saving mechanism. However, the consequences, in particular on the intercontinental return leg, can be financially catastrophic. It is much more serious than recommending a restaurant or museum that turns out to be not of the liking of those who heeded the hint.

Are you more likely to get pickpocketed because it hasn’t ever happened or more likely?

It can be easy to let down your guard when touring or stopping to admire an attraction. I think the best one can do is take personal responsibility for securing their valuables --- in whatever purse/belt or other means they feel comfortable with.

For me, I have not been scammed, stolen from, pick-pocketed or "held for ransom" of buying a silly string bracelet or whatnot.

I look people straight in the eye when walking or even "if" I am stopped for something. When I say no, I mean no. I don't need to yell or raise my voice so that Sicily can hear me. I can speak slang Sicilian if I need to further my point of "no."

If someone would grab my hand or arm, then it will be a different scenario for them.