We’ve literally just arrived in Granada and in our first couple of hours here my friend had been relieved of his credit card by a local felon using the fake spray of pigeon poo trick. I was a little way ahead of our group when my wife yelled to tell me had been struck by bird poo and a friendly local was going to show him where he could wash it off.
I was immediately running back yelling “it’s a scam!” and dashed into the university of Granada building the scammer was brazenly using and into the gents to find my friend washing his shirt in a sink with the scammer fussing about him. He made it clear we - there was another friend with me - weren’t welcome, but I asked my friend to check for his wallet which he confirmed he had then despite scammer’s protests we suggested he ‘do one’ (British Legal Term). He actually didn’t take much persuading/threatening to make him leave.
It was only when we left that my friend checked and found a single one of his many credit cards was missing. This we cancelled by phone immediately and then asked the nearest police officer we could find for help. He directed us to a tourist office police station behind the cathedral where they efficiently dealt with the theft. We also called at the university to alert them that their facilities were being used for a part of petty theft. They have CCTV of their entrance that the police can call on and better yet my friend was able to positively identify the tea leaf (British Legal Term) as he has ‘previous’ (BLT) from police mug shots and he can look forward to being ‘nicked’ (BLT) in the near future.
So…a warning to those planning to visit Granada to be on their guard (I was assured by the police that this is a rare occurrence) and a big thanks to this forum where I first read of this scam in the first place. And today…..the noticeable absence of any birds!
Ian