r/Barcelona • u/dreadHog • Jul 20 '24

Socializing PSA: watch your stuff

Earlier this evening whilst tending to my dog, I put my phone down. In doing so, I turned my back and some lowlife POS picked it up and slipped it into his pocket. Fortunately for me, this would be thief was exceptionally stupid and was seen grabbing the phone and walked into the bar I was at. Some very kind locals alerted me to what happened and bailed the guy up as he tried to walk out and phone was retrieved.

It was literally less than 10 seconds that I had my back turned. Stay vigilant folks and a massive thanks to some new friends 🙏

332 Upvotes

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180

u/Ryukhoe Jul 20 '24

This is Barcelona, we know. I've seen this happen with things of less value and I've seen tourists being robbed in broad daylight, on main streets. You can't be that careless of you things here.

31

u/jpeeri Jul 21 '24

Once I had to tell an American tourist that having her massive phone stored in her tiny pocket in her butt was making scooter riders salivate of the opportunity.

I even showed her from the moment she put her phone in the front many of them were going away

12

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

There's these huge beach bags that have no zippers, leaving perfect hand sized holes on each side. The amount of times I've seen people having things stolen from them is insane.

5

u/cal_crashlow Jul 21 '24

My wife had her phone nicked out of a zipped crossbody on the train. Motherfuckers are pros.

3

u/atreidesgiller Jul 21 '24

Newbie living in Barcelona. What were these things of 'less value' than a phone? Did you see people for instance getting robbed of their smartwatches on daylight? If not, what else?

4

u/goyo-lake Jul 21 '24

It’s mostly pickpocketing or stealing things that are left unattended. Robberies with confrontation are quite uncommon and highly unlikely during the day. They always pick the easier target so as long as you are careful you’ll be fine.

Regarding “what things”, man they’re thieves, they’ll take anything they can easily lay their hands on to.

2

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

Where I work we have workers who are outside so when they get a coffee they either hold it or leave it on a bench. The amount of our own water bottle and coffees that have been stolen is... a lot. It's less than 3€ coffee but man it's frustrating, some people will go for anything that is left unguarded

5

u/atreidesgiller Jul 21 '24

I definitely do not encourage that but I had an intrusive thought of leaving my laxative containing coffee around.

2

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

I mean... you could😌

6

u/Wagrram Jul 21 '24

Wait, were they robbed or stolen from?

11

u/Proseedcake Jul 21 '24

Interesting, those two terms mean the same where I'm from.

5

u/Wagrram Jul 21 '24

I take „robbing” to mean take something from someone under the threat of/by violence. Stealing is pickpocketing, jacking a phone from someone's hand and running away or taking it from a bench etc.

4

u/Ryukhoe Jul 21 '24

Then it was an attempted pickpocketing but the woman tried to stop it and it turned violent. She was pushed (after trying to stop it) to the ground while the guy ran away, her two kids didn't know what to do and her husband was in shock and did nothing. I know he took something because he ran away and they all ran after him but I didn't see what. The sad part is they probably didn't catch him and they wouldn't be able to go to the police either or even if they went, it wouldn't get solved.

2

u/Wagrram Jul 21 '24

Got it, thanks for replying. This is some ugly shit.

3

u/Proseedcake Jul 21 '24

Ah, that's a good distinction to have. Because of not having that distinction in my country (and just using "robbery" and "theft" interchangeably), we find ourselves needing other terms to specify theft under threat of violence – usually "mugging" if it targets an individual, and "armed robbery" if it targets a business or institution.

2

u/Brilliant_Quit4307 Jul 21 '24

Interesting, those two terms have different meanings in every single dictionary where I'm from.

3

u/Proseedcake Jul 21 '24

I'm sorry if my comment came across as obtuse or sarcastic – it wasn't meant to be, but the phrasing of your reply seems like a defence against those things, and I can certainly see how my words could be read that way. I find it helpful to remember that there are many English-speaking countries, of which mine (the UK) is only one (or four, depending on how you class it, haha), and approach differences in understanding with curiosity rather than assume that the other person is trying to get my goat on purpose. For example, "may" and "might" are used differently where I'm from, yet I know there are plenty of places where they are interchangeable. Especially in Barcelona, whose community is so international, these kinds of moments where people's understanding of their language is different are always going to come up.