A Nightmare started When My Passport and Wallet were stolen in Paris

Paris Pickpocket caught me during my 2015 visit around Christmas time. It was so professional, I could tell I was not his/her first victim. We all know robbery happens all around the world and I might be little biased since I am still bitter about my experience but almost everyone I know visiting Paris lost something there. Is it more common in Paris than average?

Photo by Natasha Chebanoo on Unsplash

We hear on news and movies about Paris as if it is known for its glamour, cuisine, romance, and fashion. Unfortunately, the glamourous Paris that is shown in movies and explained in romantic books represents Paris from 17th or 18th centuries, not from 21st. That is the old Paris EU citizens still want to believe in and this is not the reality of Paris anymore considering its increasing unemployment rate and taxes. In addition, the city is restless due to the protests such as yellow vests movement (1) and National security bill protests due to inequality in education (2), economic justice and security.

During my visit in 2015, yellow vest protests were going on and many stores, part of the public transportation and many touristic areas were closed and since it is a recent temporary situation, web sites are not updated accordingly. So you will learn about it once you arrived there which is frustating. Besides, you don’t know where the protests are or whether you are in a safe place. All day you just go with the flow.

On my vacation, I’ve also learned apart from the protests and high expenses, Paris is also know for its pickpockets. The city attracts over 33 million tourists per year, — at least that was the case before Covid — so it is heaven for sticky fingers. It is said that the pickpockets are trained specifically for the touristic areas when you are distracted and taking pics of Eiffel Tower, you will become a target.

Paris Pickpockets want to remove your valuable property (like wallet, purse or watch) without you noticing anything and without confrontation. That was exactly what happened to me; someone opened my backpack when I was walking in the underground and took my wallet and somehow also the passport. I was with a friend, occasionally talking to her when we were walking or anyone in the crowd didn’t see or say anything. Despite the fact that this is a well known problem in Paris, French police are not seen in the touristic places to prevent or at least reduce the attacks or did not take any other action apart from the warning announcements in public transportation that they recommend you to watch your belongings. Looks like AI face recognition did not arrive to glamorous Paris yet.

What to do if your wallet and passport is stolen during a vacation

If your wallet/passport is stolen, you will be in shock and denial at the beginning. I also cried from anger and was so scared for what was next because I was in Paris with 2 euros in my pocket without any identification. Starting from that moment, you will do a lot of documentation and how many forms you need to fill totally depends on your nationality. All I know, you are not on a vacation anymore.

First thing you need to do is to call your bank to cancel your cards. Hope you exactly know which cards are in your wallet and find the related 800 line to call the bank that you lost the card. This is critical, otherwise calling the bank will be pricy and you will end up with a fancy phone bill.

Then you need to go to police and report the crime. Besides, you need a written documentation to show to your country at the entrance or renewal of certain documentation like driving license. It is a crime but police won’t do anything to help to find what is lost or catch anyone but provide a document to apply for your following document. It will be the first stone of the document application chain you will go through.

After receiving the police report, you need to call your embassy to make an emergency appointment in order to apply for a temporary passport and report the loss of the previous one. Since passport is a special identification, your embassy also have to have this information within their records and you need to bring the police report. The temporary passport is only to get you back to your country, you can not go to another country apart from the citizen one. So if you have plane tickets for another destination, that will not happen. You are going home to apply for a real passport.

Fun fact from my experience: I had multiple cards in my wallet when it was stolen and was calling the banks one by one to cancel the cards, it was night time in USA and I was on the phone for a very long time. It was frustrating! I called FreedomFirst (a local bank in VA, I used to live there and still had the card) to cancel my credit card and they didn't believe me and said I need to go to a branch in VA if I’d like cancel my card. I guess not many people went to Paris from VA and lost their FreedomFirst card before. I said I am stuck in Paris, I can not come there. They said so this is what it is, the card stayed active. It took me 2 months to go to a FreedomFirst branch in VA to cancel the card while the card was active somewhere in Paris. As you can imagine, I also cancelled the whole membership with them for their lack of card cancelling capability.

What to do to prevent it

Avoid public transportation and any crowded areas as much as possible around touristic areas. Many of the pickpockets choose touristic locations to point tourists and steal things with the benefit of the crowd. I know my wallet was stolen when I was walking in the subway. I really wish I took uber that day.

Carry valuables in a money belt, and don’t flash cash. You can keep around 50 euros cash in your pocket and take it out when you will buy something. You might be thinking I can be a good time to use credit cards, but interestingly not every store accepts credit card, they prefer cash, especially the small shops.

Final Thoughts

I am a big supporter of AI face recognition. People talk about ethics and how this technology will end our privacy in the future. I hope it will also end pickpockets and robbery so if you grab someones wallet or passport in a subway, you will know you will get arrested that night so maybe this crime will be something unusual in the coming decade since someone will have a recorded evidence.

My travel in 2015 was more adventure than I thought it would be. It was a life lesson and a memory I will never forget. The silver lining of the story is next time I am struggling during a trip, I will remember that moment of shock and how I got over it step by step. As a world traveller, I love the stories of my life even the ones that made me cry at the moment. Because a life with adventures is much better than a life on a safe couch and at the end I only regret the chances I didn’t take.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50399302