Costa Rica, Quepos - Pickpocket
 

A day to remember. They are celebrating the founding of the city with all sorts of stuff going on in front of the hotel. Walking back from getting a haircut I was pushed from the back by what I thought was a drunk. This was about noon. Stopped at a local coffee shop for a coffee and discovered when I went to pay that my wallet was gone. Then it became clear to me what had happened with 'the drunk'. And this was with all kinds of cops working the event.
I lost my credit cards, driver's license and about $200. My passport was in another pocket and my money was stashed in various places so I was OK there. The owner of the coffee shop has lived here twenty years and took me to the police station wheere I filed a report and looked at about fifty mug shots of pickpockets. Give you an idea of the problem here. Spent the next seven hours on the phone with credit card companies and banks etc. None of the cards had been used. I suspect they just wanted the money and ditched the walled and other stuff.
Thank God I have Line2 on my iPhone and can call for 2 cents a minute via Wi-Fi.
The major issue is that I now don't have a drivers license. I've been using an expired license but when we were stopped two days ago for an illegal left turn, which we did, I gave the cop the expired DL and he immediately caught it. I then showed him my retired law enforcement ID and he let us off. At that point I put both licenses in my wallet. Dumb. I also have two really great copies of my Nevada DL. But over time they have delaminated. So I had them in my wallet and was going to get them relaminated today.
Maybe those silly pouches people carry around their necks and inside their shirts aren't so stupid after all.

Quepos is known for thieves
 

The junkies used to live in the cemetery up behind the soccer field. It's a known bad town for thieves, and they are really good at snatches on the buses.
The times I was there were always someone who had been robbed in town at night, once even in front of hostel there...forgot the name...frog something.
Dominical, down the coast, is a lot more relaxed, not much crime. Great place to camp/stay is Rancho DiAndrew just N of town, sign at road, go up about 5 miles....great views, waterfalls, parties...I worked there a few months last year.

Zig

Yuh. Except that the ones carried around the waist dangling down into the crotch are better than the neck pouches. Don't leave home without it...and don't get lazy about using it.

Not everyone who carries a wallet in a pocket gets hit, but a great many do. There's no upside. A wallet stuffed with cards and cash is: 1) an open invitation as good as a neon sign, and 2) easy to take from you. Even bills stuffed loose in a pocket are less obvious and more difficult to take without you noticing.

Festivals, parades, street performances, public concerts--they're prime territory for pickpockets. So are markets and transport stations. Same wherever you go, including Europe.

Fortunately, the $200 and incredibly irritating dealings with banks and card issuers will be over soon. All that will remain is a good story to tell. It'll get better with time.

Mark

Sorry to hear about this.

Youtube has quite a few videos on pickpockets worth watching. Some of these people are good.

Derren Brown - How To Be A Pickpocket 1 - YouTube

daryl