Travelling around Europe, we visited Oslo in June 2008. In the hotel dining room, my husband went to the breakfast buffet leaving his travel wallet containing all his documents, credit cards and some cash at the table with me. A male person entered the dining room, sat down and a few moments later, created a disturbance by dropping Norwegian currency on the floor. A group of youngsters who were at a table behind me all jumped up and down, excited about the money being on the floor, I looked around, and two minutes later my husband's wallet was gone. We reported to hotel security and were astonished to find that they had no way of identifying who entered the dining room because their sister hostel (a cheaper place than our 3-start hotel) next door sold breakfast coupons to anybody who wanted one. Long story short, we had a lot of problems cancelling credit cards, making police reports, and most importantly getting new passport and visas for our ongoing journey. The lesson we learned was you have to be alert EVERYWHERE. Even in a hotel dining room where you would think you could relax and be comfortable.
Posted by
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
8293 posts
Forgive me if I disagree, laxmi, about the lesson learned. The lesson learned should have been "keep your wallet safely on your person". Leaving it on a table in a public dining room was a huge mistake, which you now know, of course, unless you were to put it in your handbag until your husband returned to the table. There are thieves and dishonest people even in hotel dining rooms, as your message so forcefully reminds us.
Posted by
St.Cloud, Florida, US
93 posts
I'm sorry to hear you had difficulties in Oslo. Unfortunately there are dishonest people everywhere so it remains the individual's responsibility to safeguard their belongings. In any area you need to keep your things safe, including in your own hotel room. It's not that you can't trust people but there's no need to tempt fate. I'm hoping you had copies of all your docs safely stowed in your suitecase like RS suggests in all his travel guides.
Posted by
Freedonia
16276 posts
When you're away from home, there is no such thing as a safe place.
I've worked for tour companies, hotels, restaurants, convention services companies, and others in the travel industry, and theft can occur anywhere.
Pickpockets are everywhere. Hotels, restaurants, tourist sites and the like. They prey on tourists for two reason...one, tourists have money, and second, it's rare that a tourist will return for the trial. No witness, no complaint, no trial.
A common occurrence in hotels is to rob a room while the housekeeper is cleaning it. Many hotels allow their housekeepers to prop open 2 or 3 rooms at a time. Anyone can go to those room, knock on the door, and say to the housekeeper, usually in the bath, "I'm sorry, I forgot something, I'll be out of your way in a moment." The housekeeper doesn't know what you look like and returns to her work. The thief can now go through your luggage or drawers quickly and take what he wants.
Diversions anywhere, like the dropping of money in the restaurant, must be automatically deemed suspicious and your focus must turn to any valuable you have not protected by a moneybelt.
The average zippered case can be opened and closed without you knowing it even if it's locked. The only tool needed...a pen. (You can find out how to do this on youtube and is actually handy should you lose a key to a lock or forget the combination.) There are ways around it but not cases have that luxury.