The Frequent Miler team is currently on the second half of our Party of 5 challenge. Last week, team Tokyo (Carrie and Stephen) took us from Tokyo to the Philippines to Macau and back to Tokyo. This week, so far, team SFO (Tim and Nick) took us around San Francisco and then to Santiago Chile and then to Buenos Aires Argentina. When we arrived in Santiago on Saturday morning, we loaded into an Uber and someone somehow stole my backpack out of the trunk. We discovered it missing when we arrived at the Ritz.
While I’m very fortunate that my passport and regular wallet were in my pocket, my travel wallet was among many other valuables in my backpack. The travel wallet held various IDs (but my passport was in my pocket at the time), vaccination cards (yellow fever, Covid), and a number of credit cards. Minutes after we discovered my backpack missing I started getting messages from credit card issuers: fraud alerts about attempts to use my cards for $2500+ purchases. Yikes.
At first I thought there was no way to find my backpack but then I remembered that my Apple AirPods were in one of the pockets. Through my iPhone I could see where they were, and the location seemed to update every twenty minutes or so.
I talked to the hotel concierge about tracking the bag. He said that the bag (or at least the AirPods) was in a very bad part of town and so we shouldn’t go ourselves. What about the police? He said we could try but didn’t think they would help. He then called a friend at a police station and was told that if we filed a police report, the police may be able to take us to where the bag was to try to recover it.
Fortunately for us, the Ritz’s driver was available and he spoke fluent English. He took us to the closest police station where, with his considerable help (since no one at any police station we visited seemed to speak English), I filed the police report. That was slowwwwww. When it was finally done, we were told to go to the police station in the precinct where my backpack was because police from other precincts couldn’t go there.
At the next station, we were told to wait until one of the two available police cars was available. We waited and waited and waited. Fortunately a police officer was able to lend me his charger while we were there because we wouldn’t be able to track the bag if my phone, which by then had 18% charge, was to run out of batteries altogether. By the time a car was available, my phone was charged to 72%. That was the good news. The bad news was that the bag had moved by then to a different precinct. We had to move on to another station and start the waiting process all over again.
We bounced around from one station to another as the backpack traveled all over the city. I assume that the thief was trying different credit cards in different stores. Or maybe they were selling the backpack’s contents. Or both.
After about five hours of this grueling slow motion wack a mole game, we finally got some help. Nick and I loaded into the back of a police car to go to the last known location of the bag. Shortly after we arrived, though, the bag (or at least the AirPods) had moved again. They were now back in the original location, or close to it, and in one of the worst parts of town. This is when we finally gave up. At the pace we were moving there was no way we’d ever catch the thief or recover any of my stuff. I had to concede that the game was over. I lost.
This is a huge bummer for me. I lost a ton of valuable things including my laptop (I’m blogging from my cellphone for the first time ever). Of the things lost, I’m saddest about the backpack itself. It’s been fantastic and yet they don’t make this exact one anymore. Fortunately it is all just “stuff”. Everyone on the team is safe and healthy, and that’s what really matters.
We’re now in Buenos Aires and about to do some mystery activity that requires clothes that we don’t mind ruining. Hmm. Paintball perhaps? Follow frequent_miler on Instagram to find out!
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Nick is Puerto Rican
That’s why i said 4 and not 5
I know several people who have been robbed in Santiago, even a woman who had her cell phone on a tether—just like a post below.
I would guess that the backpack was either never loaded into the trunk of the Uber (accidentally left behind) or was removed from the trunk and left on the sidewalk (if your helpful driver was loading your bags and you decided to leave the back of the Uber and get into the car before all the luggage was loaded.) I guess the lesson is to stay with your bags until the trunk closes?
So sorry to read of the loss, Greg. I think transfers are the most vulnerable time for theft. The two thefts I have experienced while traveling have both come in those types of situations. I now generally have my hotel arrange the transfer if offered. At least they know the person or company they work with (if it is not their own vehicle) which improves the likelihood of things going well. Some guy with a sign with your name on it is a welcome sight walking out of customs.
Thanks for your openness to share the not so fun aspects of what otherwise I hope is a wonderful trip. I wonder if you’d be interested in writing about the different aspects of security and risk mitigation while traveling? For pick-pockets I’ve always felt comfortable using front pockets, wearing packs on the front of my body, and always keeping bags physically in front of me, ideally with a leg or arm on or through straps on them. Based on the experiences of friends, I’ve been more concerned about the armed robbery angle. The quick hold up where they steal your wallets and cell phones. So I’ve tried to divide my risk, stowing a backup kit deep within another bag, with a little cash, backup debit, backup credit card, and photo copy of my passport.
I’d be interested in hearing the different techniques you all have devised to protect your belongings and mitigate risk while traveling.
Sorry to hear the incident Greg. Hope your journey will be just fine even with the loss. Even though I already heard a lot of bad stories about problems in those countries, it’s still sad to hear them again and agaib. It’s so frustrating how the world and some people went downhill like this. Back to years ago Italy and France were high on my safe list, now with so many issues I am no longer that exclited to go there. Guess I will be even more hesitant to go to Chile and alike now.
I admire your persistence in chasing down your bag. We were in Santiago in February. As seasoned travellers we were on the lookout for thieves and left most things at the Ritz. I was backed up against a wall taking an iPhone pic with the phone on a tether and close to my face. My husband momentarily took his eyes off me and a young thief ran quickly past and grabbed my iPhone. I am sure we looked like easy targets. But my 65 year old husband took off after the thief. He chased him for 4 blocks. Along the way locals joined in the chase and threw things at the thief to slow him down. A bicycle cop joined the chase and a car arrived just as the thief threw down my phone and the police got him. From there it was 4 hours of very slow police work to file the papers. The Ritz sent someone to help us with Spanish. And we learned that night that the thief went to jail. Even for those really watching our backs, we were targeted. But luckily our story ended with a happy ending.
One more thought: While it’s truly awful to lose your backpack and laptop, etc, try to avoid spending time in the past with should have/ could have/ if only thoughts. In the present moment, you are being surrounded with the healing presence of love from all your faithful readers. Just breathe it in when needed.
Greg, I’m so, so, so sad that you lost your much loved Tumi backpack & all its precious contents. I know I felt a sense of being violated when I was pickpocketed. But I was lucky that the thief left my credit cards & only deftly took my cash. I hope that your equilibrium returned rapidly, and you are back to the joy of travel.
I appreciated the pictures of you & Nick in the police car. I always thought that you were true friends. Good job, Nick, not letting Greg deal with it all alone.
I am glad you put all your energies into trying yo retrieve it, but knew that five hours was time to call it quits. No regrets there. On to great team adventures!!!
I’m trying to figure how this could have happened without the driver being complicit. If the bag being missing was noticed within a few minutes after you being dropped off at the hotel it seems extremely unlikely that the Uber driver would have gotten another fare, driven to the location, driven the person to their destination, the passenger had a bag in the trunk, the passenger retrieved your backpack, found or called for another ride, then started spending crazily while on the move. That’s just a massive series of coincidences in a short period of time.
Sorry to hear about that! It could be bitter. Hope you do not generalize that much.
I had my dose of experiences in France and Spain. Your message reminded me an episode, when a local security patrol in Spain yelled at us, ‘do not carry your backpack on your back; carry it in front of you’. There are good guys there.
First trip out of the country with my girlfriend, who is now my wife of 21+ years, we were robbed of everything in Italy between Florence and Sienna back in 2001. Our bags were in the trunk of our rental car while traveling between hotels. Ten minutes at a winery to buy olive oil along the highway did us in.
Thankfully, I had my drivers license plus a credit card in my pocket and she had her passport in hers. The Italian Carabinieri blamed “the gypsies”. Lost a day going back to the US embassy in Florence to get a replacement passport and we never saw Sienna.
Thankfully Venice and Santorini were still enjoyable after we scrambled to buy everything from underwear to contact lenses – thankfully available back then w/o a prescription in Italy, as long as you know what level of correction you needed.
Being robbed certainly adds unwanted stress to a vacation, and it squashed my plans to propose on that trip.
Conversely, I left my wallet behind at our hotel in Zihuatanejo TWICE, only to have it returned by hotel employees, the second time by them driving to the airport to find me before I boarded our flight home. They must have looked for the stupid gringo
Sorry to hear this happened to you. Perhaps the cab driver was an accomplice. You never know.
Anyways, I found this statement to be quite puzzling: “since no one at any police station we visited seemed to speak English.”
Why would you think otherwise? I doubt the ability to speak a foreign language is a requirement for their job.
Anyone who has never had something stolen while traveling is very lucky or possibly has not traveled that much, it’s really a matter of time before something happens. You cannot be perfectly vigilant at all times, and high pressure situations like piling 5 people into an Uber in a rush means an opportunistic thief can grab something out of the trunk before it’s closed.
I’m sure everybody will invest in AirTags next time and keep their personal items on them as much as they can, but things go wrong when we travel sometimes. Just have to roll with it and not let these things ruin the whole trip. I had my bag stolen right out from under me when I put it down at a hotel in Spain. I’m back there next week, hopefully things will go better!
To everyone saying Greg should have kept the backpack next to him, you guys realize he was in an Uber with 2 other people? So I imagine space inside was at a premium. Also, who’s to say Tim and/or Nick didn’t already have one of their bags inside the car? So now all 3 of them are supposed to have their bags next to them? Where does this magical space come from?
I keep my under the seat backpack in my lap and cards and money in a money belt. It isn’t always comfortable but I do that even when squished together in a small car. Larger items go in the trunk but I don’t leave cards or computer in those bags.
It was worse than that. All five of us crowded into a single Uber. Normally I do bring the backpack to the seat with me but there didn’t seem to be enough room. In retrospect of course I should have squeezed it in.
Glad you got your home cooked meal! I want to hear more about that.