Pickpockets, Barcelona

I know that there will be a thousand tips about pickpockets in Barcelona, as the city is rife with them. I can only emphasise once again that you really must keep an eye on your bag or purse. Here are two cautionary tales:

My friend R was sitting on a park bench cuddling with her boyfriend. Her handbag was lying on the park bench next to her, entangled in her jacket. She didn't even notice it being stolen: the person who took it managed to disentangle it and take it so smoothly!

My friend J was sitting on the terrace of a cafe with her family. A bunch of girls sat down at the table next to her and were making heaps of noise. After a bit they went on their way. The waiter came to serve J and asked where the group had gone... and then said to J, "check your bag". J looked and her purse and all the passports in her bag had been snatched. J and her husband leapt up and managed to chase the group down the cobbled streets (J in preposterous stilletto shoes) and actually catch them. So don't be distracted and wear your bag across your body at all times!

For even 10 seconds. My friend offered to hang my bag on the hook in front of her at the Cafe bar we were sitting at, and it was gone in literally one minute. Some guy sidled up beside her at the bar, and the next thing we knew it was gone. The unemployment rate in Barcelona is super high, and these people are pros.

Even though I have travelled a bit and been to many cities with warnings of pickpocketers, I was a bit nervous about coming to Barcelona. This is because I actually know of 3 people (and have heard stories of others... 'a friend of a friend') who have had items stolen from them while here.

But I didn't want to spend the whole time being worried I would have something stolen from me - where's the fun in that? So I kept to the 'be alert, not alarmed' motto, made sure I didn't flash my money or my camera about, and walked with my hand on my bag.

I've heard the worst area in Barcelona is Las Ramblas for this. But just be aware of your surroundings and you will be fine :).

For me, I ended up leaving Barcelona without having a pickpocket story to tell and having had a great time there as well.

There are MANY pickpockets in Barcelona and the more touristy you look the more of a target you look. Avoid walking too long with your luggage as we were followed at one one point (easy targets I suppose) so we dived into the nearest hostel to avoid them!

Most aren't dangerous and are just after your goods, day or night. Be VERY careful on the metro, especially in rush hour! It is particularly bad here.

Stay alert, make sure all bags are tightly secured and keep money spread out in as many different places as possible. A money belt would be a good idea!

Watch your bags, wallets etc when strolling the ramblas as this is a favourite haunt of pickpockets.
Also take care on the metro, last time I was in the city my friend and I took a trip on the metro and were joined by a young 'loving' couple, they moved behind my friend and when I turned around the man had my friends bag open and was having a good look through!
I gave him a look of disbelief and shook my head at him which was enough thankfully to make him stop and remove his hands without removing her money or camera!
Just please be aware, keep an eye on what is going on around you, I don't want to alarm anyone at all!!!
It's all common sense really!

This was the only bad or dangerous experience that me and my wife had in Barcelona (and until now in any city/country that we´ve visited). We were walking in one of the litle streets of Barrio Gotic near La Rambla and two guys approached asking us were where we from, joking with us, asking if we wanned drugs and stuf like that. We obviously never stopped walking. The guy that was speaking to me as we were walking was distracting me with questions and always smiling and talking with fun, etc. He was always looking me in the eyes probably to distract me, I realize now... As we were walking we was aproaching more and more and never stoped talking to me. At a certain point my wife screamed because the the guy was descreatly putting his hand on my pocket. I kind of punched him in his chest to put him away from me. At that time they left, i.e, they stoped walking with us and they made a sign to a third guy that was a litle ahead checking maybe if anything went wrong....Only at that time we realized that they were 3 guys..!! Fortunately they didn't reach my wallet because my wife saw him just in time...! Note that all of this happened with several other people passing by at 7 pm and all happened in about 10 seconds...! Be very carefull!! Hide your stuff!! I think we had just bad luck by having this very bad experience... Even so, as you can imagine our vacation was a little affected by it...

This is something told to me by some other American, about that famous street in Barcelona called Las Ramblas. He was watching a man on crutches struggle along and also a couple of tourists walking slightly behind him. At a certain point, the cripple stumbled and the tourist man grabbed for him to keep him from falling. At that second, someone behind the tourist tried to grab his money belt, which was essentially a fanny pack. The tourist dropped the cripple and grabbed for his belt, saving it. Then he tried to grab the would be thief. The thief took off and the cripple picked up his crutches and started running away too. They were a pair! The person telling me this said that they both came back about 15 minutes later to go through their whole burlesque all over again.

Every guide book mentions this, but you cannot be too careful in Barcelona. Any bag on the ground by your feet stands a good chance of disappearing if you're not watching it. A common scam is for someone to come along holding an open newspaper or map, which covers their other hand while they steal your stuff. Also on no account stop to give anyone a light on the streets between Princesa and Santa Catarina market. Three of their buddies will appear from nowhere and drag you into one of the many dark alleyways.