Crime in Barcelona – How I got robbed!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for stopping by! I know its been a while since my last post but this one I really wanna share with you!

As some of you have read on my Instagram stories and my latest Instagram post, I was robbed in Barcelona. Barcelona is super hyped, considered as a upscale place in Spain, and a lot of you reading this will be quite surprised when I tell – It is not safe!

For someone who has been travelling her entire life, been to almost 30 countries, this robbery has been an absolute surprise. I thought something like this could never happen to me. In general, when bad stuff happens, it usually affects “other people”, and then one day, BOOM – and you are the victim.

I have had a lot of people reach out to me after the robbery, saying they know someone who has also been robbed in Barcelona and that I should be very careful – well I wish I knew before! I am not blaming anyone, I actually really appreciate all of you reaching out to me and comforting me yet I want to warn anyone who plans on going to Bareclona, even Spain soon, or is planning to go!

I don’t want anyone to have to undergo the same thing like my boyfriend and I had to. No, I want to be the one who proactively warns you and hopefully can help preventing anyone of you getting robbed.

So first lets talk about what happened to us exactly:

The day began on a very nice note. My boyfriend and I had landed at 1 am in Bacrelona and stayed at the Renaissance Hotel close to the airport. The car rental wasn’t open yet, so my boyfriend said he would pick up the car from National (car rental), after breakfast in the morning. We both wanted to see a little bit of the city of Barcelona and then drive to France, to meet my family.

We had breakfast, he went to get the car, came back to the Hotel and we put our luggage into the trunk of the car. Here, I want to add a side note; our rental car was an Opel Insignia sedan and we discussed that morning that we will never open the trunk of the car in the city, so no one notices we have our luggage in there/anything in there.

We happily drive into the city, planning to pass by the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Casa Batllo and La Rambla (beach area) on a quick note and then go drive up to southern France.

We parked our car in the public, on all occasions. The parkings were payable, and we assumed also monitored. The first parking was outside, on a very busy street, the second parking was in a parking garage and the last one out in the open by the beach (also payable one). Each time, we weren’t even gone for an hour, on the last one actually just about 5-10 minutes. We then decided to go grab food before leaving Barcelona and parked in a street right by the restaurant (there were two restaurants in front of our car, and police not far away, so we don’t think this is the place where anything happened).

After we had a quick lunch filled with delicious tapas, we were happy, satisfied and ready to drive. We arrived at the car and my boyfriend said, he needed to get his phone-charger out of his bag in the trunk. Note to everyone: the car looked absolutely fine, no marks, nothing. So he opens the trunk and sees that my bag is gone. My bag was a Louis Vuitton Keepall with the LV Monogram. At first I thought he was joking. I said, stop joking, and he said “Hanna I am not joking”. I walked over and see, his bag is gone too!

The very interesting part here is, our suitcases were left in the trunk, but the carry-on bags were both gone. Obviously, all valuables are in the carry-on bag – especially when you usually travel by airplane.

That was the moment I started shaking. We asked a lady who stepped out of one of the restaurants, looking what was happening, if she had seen anything and she said she didn’t see anything at all. She pointed us towards the policewoman standing about 50 meters away from us. We walked up to the cop and described what happened.

She looked at the car and sent us to the closest police station so we would file a report.

Thankfully, my boyfriend stayed calm, meanwhile, I was getting more and more traumatised, feeling nauseous and realising the actual loss. We arrived at the station, checked in, were told to wait in the waiting room upstairs and well then, simply sat down and waited. And we waited, and waited, and waited even more …. Thats the moment you realise you are in a city where crime is normal daily business, especially crime aimed at tourists. One guy got robbed (also car break in), and he didn’t even have shoes left to wear!!! Most people waiting were actual tourists like my boyfriend and I.

During our wait, in my head I started going through my belongings that were in my duffle-bag. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, we arrived from Athens, where we attended an absolutely beautiful wedding of one of my good friends. Therefore, I had valuable and beautiful items such as jewellery and an expensive handbag with me – and all of this was taken! Other things in the bag included my laptop, camera, wallet, Chanel Pearl necklace, Chanel vintage necklace, Versace Medusa earrings, Versace Medusa Bracelet, Dior So Real sunnies, my BRAND NEW LADY DIOR BAG, and many more!!!! And of course my book that I was happily reading on this trip 🙁

At this point, probably some of you will judge me, thinking we got lucky nothing worse happened to us and I shouldn’t make such a big deal out of this. Of course, it could have been worse, but it was already horrible enough for me. Some of the stolen pieces were things that were given to me by my parents, who not only were valuable but also linked to a story within our family. It is not just a financial loss, but even more so an emotional one! And this is what hurts the most. I will never be able to give this jewellery to my kids, or show them and tell them a beautiful anecdote about these pieces. This is what really got me sick!

I am also completely honest with you, I am young, just starting my career and of course I can’t afford to buy these things on my own. This also hits you incredibly hard and you start feeling so guilty. I kept thinking, why did I have to pack that ring, why this bracelet, and so forth! But looking back now, all I can say, you could have never seen it coming – and it is not your fault!

At the end of the day, after waiting a couple of hours at the police station, all that happened was that we had to fill out a couple of forms. The officer assisting us couldn’t speak any English, which didn’t make the entire situation very easy and then we could go (oh yea, and there was no water available for us to drink. Very inappropriate when you wait in the summer in a room filled with people).

Here is an overall summary: 

Hours Spent in Barcelona: 3

Hours Spent at the Police Station: 4

Result: None!

This seriously sucked. But the last straw was about to come…. You think nothing worse happens, but when you’re emotionally drained – yep, things still can happen. So we finally hit the road, make it out of Barcelona and then go to the highway to head to France – when the first pay station for the highway arrives. I told my boyfriend, listen, I will pay for this one, I have my credit card on me. So he inserts the card, and the stupid machine eats it 🙂 Now I am laughing while writing this, but at that moment I just got super mad!! I mean my wallet was gone, by chance I had my ID, my boyfriends passport and one last credit card (all my debit and credit cards were in the wallet that was inside my bag in the car) – AND THIS STUPID CARD IS NOW EATEN BY THIS STUPID MACHINE!

I know, I told my bank when calling them from the police station, very explicitly, which cards to cancel!! So you’re left on vacation, and you have no money at all – simply WONDERFUL! Imagine, you would have been by yourself?! Thankfully, I was with my boyfriend and my family was awaiting me in France – so it wasn’t like I had nothing, but still. It feels like you are constantly dependent on others!!!!!!!!

So I decide to call my bank in Switzerland one last time, trying to figure out what had happened, and exactly when the lady said “I can send you a new card to France by Friday, please give me your address there”, the line gets cut – UGH!!!!!! Of course, I try to call again and again, and my phone just stops working – no calls went through. FRUSTRATION LEVEL 100000000000000000.

Just like the saying, everything comes together! And that day, definitely everything happened at once!!!

Retrospective: So what do I have to say to all this – and probably some of you wonder why we left all that stuff in the car?

Let me explain why we left our belongings in the car: I had spent some time in Spain a couple of years ago for my minor in Spanish. Back then, it happened all the time that thieves stole stuff from our group. Once, someone grabbed my camera from the table while we were at a restaurant. We also didn’t want to draw any attention on the jewellery/accessories I could be possibly wearing. Thats why I wore my “easiest to replace bag” that day, no actual jewellery – just some accessories not worth more than 30Euros and carried one Credit Card with me. The driver’s licence was also in my bag, my boyfriends passport and my ID, they were hidden in the underwear section of my suitcase 🙂 We thought, as long as we draw no attention on us, nothing will happen. We also thought, that by never showing to anyone in public we had stuff left in the car, no one will care – but we were so so wrong! If only I had walked around like a flashy, almost Christmas tree, then I would still have my jewellery – oh I wish, I wish, I wish!

I keep thinking, what if… What if we would have gone straight to France. What if we hadn’t parked in place A, B or C – so many what if’s. But at the end of the day, you simply have to let go and move on.

I want you all to be aware of the risk thats all around in Barcelona, and apparently entire Spain. Now, many of my followers are telling me stories and I have done some research as well. Even the car rental said “this happens all the time” – but then again, why didn’t you want us when we picked up the car? Why didn’t the alarm go off in the car???

My boyfriend has a theory, and I think it makes a lot of sense. The fact that the car was specifically chosen and has no break in marks shows this was planned. He believes, someone might have followed us from the Hotel – thus seen that we had our stuff loaded in the trunk of the car. Keep in mind, they are professional criminals, often working in big groups – thats their daily business.

But we have so many questions left open, like when exactly did it happen, did we come back early to the car, which is why out suitcases were left, why did they pick us… etc, etc etc. At the end of the day, what happened happened and I can’t turn back time. But what I can do is warn you!

Some advice for you:

• Do NOT ever leave your luggage in the car EVER! Even if you think, nothing will happen – look at what happened to me.
• Always look around, check if someone has above average interest in you.
• Do not wear anything expensive or with an obvious brand name – I know this is hard for us fashion bloggers, but seriously don’t do it – the price is too high! And worse can happen that what we went through!
• Make sure to leave your stuff at the Hotel when you plan to spend some additional time in a city.
• Park in places where there is clear surveillance.
• Check if the alarm is working with the car rental.
• Always wait for a few seconds after locking the car. Go back and double check the car is really locked and no one is interfering with the signal (hence kept the car unlocked).
• Make sure you have “Find your iPhone” activated if you use Apple products. If these bastards turn on my laptop and connect to the internet, it will erase its content.
• Always have a close look on what you are bringing with you. I was packing in a rush before leaving on my vacation, so I had jewellery items in there that I shouldn’t have packed. It was also hard to remember what exactly was in my jewellery bag.
• When you go to a Gas Station, or even when checking in at the Hotel – don’t leave your car alone. Have someone stay there or immediately remove your luggage. A lot of robberies happen during these few moments.

I hope the above listed tips will help you not getting into trouble! And please keep your fingers crossed that karma is getting back at those bastards who stole our stuff. I consider myself a good person, and same for my boyfriend. We always try to give back, and do the right thing – so I hope Karma is on our side and these thieves will pay very very hard for this. I am also not ashamed to say the following;I understand why back in the old days, thieves hands were cut off!

My parents worked hard for every piece that was stolen, a lot of hard work went into them, so did a lot of joy but also ups and downs that happen in life. I also feel intruded in my personal space because these guys can see all my photos on my camera and can have access to my documents on my computer if they don’t connect to the internet and the hard drive hasn’t erased itself. It feels like a big violation of your personal space, especially when knowing they might have observed you.

Below are some pictures of the stolen items. I don’t have pictures of everything, but below are some that you probably know from my IG pictures. However I am not posting pictures of the “valuable” jewellery, as I usually don’t post it on any social media – so thanks for understanding.

I would also be happy to have some feedback from all of you – please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences on this topic and help me from preventing this to other people!

 

Again, thanks for stopping by!

Yours,

Hanna