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.
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.
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Shawn says
March 7, 2009 at 11:41 amDave, I have not been able to figure out why a person would leave valuables laying around at a hostel.
If there is no locker then I am forced to carry my daypack with me at all time. During the night I have a small pad lock that I use to lock it, and a small coil lock I lock the daypack to the bed so I can sleep soundly.
If they have lockers then I lock my daypack in the locker.
Sure it might be strange bringing your daypack into the bathroom, but who cares, it beats getting things stolen.
I just don’t understand how some people travel.
I met this one guy in Tel Aviv, he went into this dumpy bar and got drugged and robbed. The question I have to ask—can’t a person detect the slimy energy in the first place?
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Shawn says
March 7, 2009 at 6:41 amDave, I have not been able to figure out why a person would leave valuables laying around at a hostel.
If there is no locker then I am forced to carry my daypack with me at all time. During the night I have a small pad lock that I use to lock it, and a small coil lock I lock the daypack to the bed so I can sleep soundly.
If they have lockers then I lock my daypack in the locker.
Sure it might be strange bringing your daypack into the bathroom, but who cares, it beats getting things stolen.
I just don’t understand how some people travel.
I met this one guy in Tel Aviv, he went into this dumpy bar and got drugged and robbed. The question I have to ask—can’t a person detect the slimy energy in the first place?
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Dave says
March 9, 2009 at 10:01 amFor better or worse, I enjoy the convenience of having my stuff easily accessible. Sometimes I use lockers, but as I said, not using them had not been a problem over a combined 17 months of backpacking travel in foreign countries over the course of the last 10 years.
But I am not completely unaware. I slept on overnight trains in India with my backpack as pillow, and use to keep my money belt under my pillow.
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InsureMyBackpack says
March 8, 2009 at 6:26 pmErk! Lesson learned, I guess, and luckily an inexpensive one at that. I travel much like Shawn; my valuables are almost always on my person. At night, I often sleep with my daypack under my pillow. Paranoid? Perhaps. But I do know that in two years of travel, I’ve never had anything stolen by a dormmate. I’ve left plenty of things behind, mind you, from towels (two of!) all the way down to shoes!
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InsureMyBackpack says
March 8, 2009 at 1:26 pmErk! Lesson learned, I guess, and luckily an inexpensive one at that. I travel much like Shawn; my valuables are almost always on my person. At night, I often sleep with my daypack under my pillow. Paranoid? Perhaps. But I do know that in two years of travel, I’ve never had anything stolen by a dormmate. I’ve left plenty of things behind, mind you, from towels (two of!) all the way down to shoes!
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Dave says
March 9, 2009 at 3:01 pmFor better or worse, I enjoy the convenience of having my stuff easily accessible. Sometimes I use lockers, but as I said, not using them had not been a problem over a combined 17 months of backpacking travel in foreign countries over the course of the last 10 years.
But I am not completely unaware. I slept on overnight trains in India with my backpack as pillow, and use to keep my money belt under my pillow.
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hostels barcelona says
May 28, 2010 at 4:15 pmthis things happen in every hostel. couple of weeks ago we catch a thieve in my hostel, police came and got him, however he had a big list of robs and he will be out soon
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