Hostel Robbery

Reception, internet, and lounge area at Casa Kiwi Hostel

A few weeks ago, a Colombian girl entered the hostel in an altered/distraught state and took a bed in a room on the lower floor.  While I was using the internet in reception, I heard her ask Paul, the owner, if she could switch rooms.  She told him she had been drugged the night before at a club, and her Ipod and camera were stolen as a result.  She was moved to the bunk bed above mine on the second floor.

When I went up there, I found Paul talking to her, and my daypack wide open.  I checked it and immediately found my Oakleys were missing.  I told Paul, who asked the girl several times about the sunglasses.  On the third time, she gave them back and apologized.  Concerned, I locked up my laptop, but nothing else (don´t ask me why, I know I should´ve locked up everything at that point).  I went for a walk to buy an English/Spanish dictionary at a big bookstore a few kilometers away.

The private room I had for a week at Casa Kiwi

I returned to the hostel a few hours later to find most of my valuables sprawled out on the reception/dining room table.  Binoculars, 4 memory cards, my camera, mp3 player, and a few other things.  It turned out the girl had been stealing from people in both rooms she managed to spend time in, and Paul checked through her bags before either she left or was thrown out.  Unfortunately, she managed to get away with the AC adapter for my laptop, which as we all know by now, is very difficult and expensive to replace.  As a result, I can not longer use my laptop.  I also lost the USB cable to charge my mp3 player, and 3 mix CD's a Colombian friend had recently made for me.

The situation angered me, and I questioned whether I cared to put up with such travel-related BS any longer.  The laptop was always a luxury, and while wi-fi is common in the city of Medellin, it wouldn´t have saved me too much money because I only used it for drafting posts and checking email.  After a night´s sleep, I was mostly over the situation.  As readers might comment, it is best to lock your stuff up in hostel-provided safes for exactly this reason.  On the other hand, I have stayed in countless hostels, cheap hotels, and bungalows, often with no locks on the doors, let alone lockers, and never once had an item stolen from my bag.  I guess there is a first time for everything.

Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio, a food blog. He's been to 65 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Originally from New York, Dave now calls Austin, TX home. Read the complete story of how he became a pro travel blogger.