Silly boy: Pickpocketed

Tradewinds

Tradewinds

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Jan 2003
Messages
4,205
Location
Suffolk
www.laurelberrystudio.com
Just a reminder to others not to get too complacent.

Crossed on the ferry from NSDM Werf (A’dam marina). Done it dozens of times.

Just a quick trip across to the Albert Heijn Supermarket opposite (ish) Centraal Station.

Put my hand in my pocket for my wallet - nothing there.

€100 lighter plus all the hassle of cancelling cards.

Spoilt my afternoon I can tell you.
 
We suffered similar last month just outside central station getting off the tram, wife’s purse gone with cards and 200e cash. The local police told us they have a real big problem with pickpockets in Amsterdam. It did really spoil an otherwise good trip, it was on our last day
 
Sorry to hear that.

There is a website you can go on to see if your purse/wallet/whatever have turned up.

If there is a name they can put to the item they do so eg. Portemonee van Smith and the area it was found plus a photo of the item.

www.ilost.co

I notice the pickpockets were particularly active at Mysteryland on the 31st.

I suspect mine was dumped in the most convenient litter bin near the station and is probably gone forever.
 
Some years ago I was travelling back from Middleburg to the Hook by train, and the helpful lady in the ticket office warned me to be very careful when changing trains at Rotterdam as they were many pickpockets, so it is nothing new. I guess I have been lucky as the only time I have ever had my wallet pinched was in the cinema in Cambridge in about 1960. Amazingly it was found and returned to my college, needless to say without money but other bits and pieces including the drivers licence were still there. The porter took great pleasure in returning me the contents one item at a time, two of which were packets of Durex. :)
 
I don't suppose the Amsterdam is any different to any other large tourist centre but it does seem to have its share of dodgy characters. We had two locked clapped-out folding bikes taken from outside the tropenmuseum back in 2002 and had to make an appointment at the police station to report it, not that we received any sympathy.

On another occasion a friend was getting cash out an ATM in a shopping street just away from the centre and had it stolen. There was a short queue and he was putting the card in when a young man moved forward and pretended to help, apparently pushing the card in before making off with it. We were standing nearby but not paying much attention and so didn't see the young man. What made rather amusing to us was that our friend is an ex bank-manager and always complaining about naive suckers. Several hundred euros had been removed before the card was blocked.
 
After I’d made sure I wasn’t imagining things I called HSBC Fraud. Hopeless - they wanted my account no and sort code before they could do anything. I could rermember my account no but not the sort code - so an impasse until I got back to the boat. I have a Caxton Euro card and I was able to block that without going through the HSBC rigmarole.

Back at the boat, my son told me that you can block your cards via the HSBC app, which I downloaded and did the business completely painlessly.

I learnt quite a bit that day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top