I was (finally!) robbed!

After all these months on the road, surrounded by pure luck, I was robbed. It happened in Georgetown, Guyana, a Sunday when few people were out on the street. Some guy sneaked up and stole my wallet from my back-pocket in broad daylight. It was only about 5 pm and I was very surprised as it didn’t even seem like a dodgy area (hence not alert enough). It wasn’t one of these skilful pickpockets who steals things without you noticing either. Here it was just to dig in, grab the wallet and run for your life. Just as discreet as Santa Claus is blue.

I am now quite entertained by finally have been robbed on the street. At least it generates some stories to tell on the road.

Now, this Guyanese fellow managed to steal my old wallet with holes in it, containing a VISA card issued by SEB that expired in July 2006, almost £1 worth of various Peruvian coins in small denominations, some receipts from a Peruvian supermarket called Metro, one folded A4 sheet of paper where it was written “HaHa!” and finally, one US dollar bill. It may have contained a few Brazilian coins too, I don’t remember.

Now you probably understand that this wasn’t really my real wallet but my “decoy” that I always carry with me and that lives in my back pocket. Due to all the skilful (real) pickpockets who operate in crowded areas, I would never carry my real wallet in the back pocket anyway. But I figured it would be good to have something easy to hand over in case being robbed the normal way. In that case I would give them the useless wallet and run away while they are busy escaping. Later they would find that the contents are completely useless while I have disappeared with my real wallet, my cellphone and my camera and my large stashes of cash ($$$). As an additional cream upon the mash, they would find my jolly “message”. I am still smiling when I’m thinking about the guy, risking being caught and imprisoned for a few useless Peruvian coins.

However, the only thing that disturbs me a little is that I actually put some money in there deliberately. I was thinking that the symbolic sum of 1 USD should emphasise the scam, but now thinking about it, I have actually lost one dollar. He can actually go and buy a sandwich or a cup of coffee for that. Why would I do that?

Now I’m off to buy a new cheap wallet in the market to make another decoy. I have another expired VISA-card with me but I am certainly not filling the next one with any free give-away dollar bills.