Thanks for the clarification Grant.

1. Had an ex in Argentina take a few hundred from me that I left in one of my bags at her apartment. I had just sold my bike and got the deposit for it.

2. Once in Bogota when I was navigating their crazy bus system and getting on a bus, a group of guys working together got my fake wallet. They got me when I was stepping from the platform onto the bus. The guy getting on the bus ahead of me was in on it too. Two guys grabbed my legs while another guy grabbed the wallet. Luckily they only got $20. I was traveling with too much luggage.

3. Had a professional team get me once at an atm in Mexico. They withdrew $1000 from my account, but luckily by bank covered it as fraud.

4. Can't remember which central american country it was, but it was scorching hot and I stopped in a town to get a water. I started walking to the shop and than turned back to my bike for some reason I do not remember. I couldn't find the key to my bike anywhere. It wasn't in my pocket. It wasn't in the ignition. After about 20 minutes of searching an old man comes and taps me on the shoulder and gives me my key, and then shakes his finger at me and warns me not to leave it in the ignition. To this day, I don't know if he was a good samaritan, or in on a plan to steal the bike. lol

5. I had my chain break on the highway in Argentina. I had the rear tire off of the bike and a bunch of tools scattered around the side of the bike. A group of 5-6 young kids, maybe 10-12 years old came up to me and started asking me questions. The next thing I know one of the kids is picking up the rear tire and acting like he is going to drop it on the rotor. I run over to stop him, while his 5 friends each grab some tools and run off in every direction. Watch out for groups of young kids in Latin America. There is a lot of poverty.

I've had friends on trips get robbed quite a few times because they left money stashed in their room. Its a real common airbnb way to get robbed. Put it in your shoe if you need to.

Just a thought vaguely related to this topic; isn't it funny that when you do the most extensive, well planned trip of your lifetime you have to take the crappiest gear that you own. (not refering to tools).
Sunglasses: cheap plastic, good ones stay at home
Clothes: same
Watch: same
Bike: same?

Makes you wonder why we buy the good expensive stuff in the first place? just to show off to our neighbours?

On a more cautionary note, there is a tendency to steal your jacket (thieves are not stupid and they know that they are expensive and look cool) and with it the contents, like documents and wallet. So I keep the important stuff in my trousers

the world is not a dangerous place, but sometimes you ...
 

... can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


bike stolen: 2009 Damascus / Syria

tried to steal the bike: 1999 Crimea/Ukraine and 2005 Sevilla / Spain

hard pannier broken into: 2005 Avignon / France

money stolen out of the room: 2015 Bishkek / Kyrgistan

tried to mug: 2003 Caracas / Venezuela, 2004 Cape Town / South Africa



enjoy your ride and try to avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
mika :scooter:

Attempted mugging: Bristol, UK 2003 (where I was studying, then my home country). Robber "changed his mind" doh after I clearly explained to him the disadvantages of his less than cunning plan...

Theft of 2 of my motorcycles from my garage in West Yorkshire, UK 2009 (then my home country). My vehicle test station sent the thieves. One bike was recovered almost immediately, the other 6 weeks later.

While travelling by motorcycle (25 years, 86 countries), touch wood, no thefts/robberies.

2010 Nicaragua - Costa Rica border. Someone stole my tank bag which I had momentarily put down on a window counter while dealing with immigration.

October 2015 - Serbia. Once we left Serbia into Romania on a bicycle trip I realized that the equivalent of $300CDN was missing from our cash. The really creepy part is that I had a vivid dream in Karavukovo, Serbia where someone was in our room and I was unable to move or scream.

To put things in perspective. The above were each 3 month trips. In my own country I've been threatened with serious bodily harm several times; had my home broken into three times; car broken into at least 5 times; witnessed an assault on the street and went to court as witness; lived beside a meth/drug flop house for 5 years and even had my community garden ransacked. All in all, I've had less problems on the road than I do at home ...and Canada is considered one of the safer countries out there.

BC and the rest of Canada
 

As British Columbia is is commonly known as BC, Bring Cash
I have lived there many times But the beauty and the the laid back life style really brings in the trash of Society I lived in Kamloops and it was probably right next to Surrey in comparative crime rates Kelowna is no better there are thieves everywhere, anything that isn't bolted down will get stolen even then the crooks may have wrenches
I moved to Colombia 6 years ago and have a iPhone 8 stolen right out of my hand by a motorcyclist , My f700gs is not on the radar of thieves but if you dont secure your stuff like a tank bag you may be robbed of this. I have touratech aluminum panniers and a aluminum top box every thing stays in these Cases locked.
dont give the bastards a chance. they are on the look out for you In BC also

Over twenty years travelling by motorcycle and yacht across five continents, the only significant/recurrent thefts that we suffered were kids in Asia (Turkey through to Malaysia, but most especially in India) and the Caribbean Islands stealing the stickers/decals off the panniers and boat's dinghy - we'd put those on especially. I got a friend back in the UK to collect a huge package of them from friends and the local m/c clubs and post them to me in India, whereafter I tried to give them away. This we discovered was 'no fun at all' so we instead affixed another 6-10 every day, being careful to always leave one edge slightly lifted, so the kids could get them off without damage to the sticker; we went through hundreds of them. :laugh:

Scammed for $20 was the worst I ever got it.

I just had a sketchy experiences in Pasto, Colombia. It is a city that is located pretty close to the border of Ecuador and Colombia. I was traveling by bus from Cali to Pasto. Unfortunately the bus did not arrive in Pasto until 2 am on a Saturday night. There was a fight going on at the entrance of the bus station where a big black guy was fighting 2 smaller security guards. They started clubbing the black guy with their batons, but he was still holding his own pretty good. Luckily the black guy didn't try to steal the batons. The police came a couple minutes later and walked this guy off like they knew him. Pasto didn't strike me as a very safe city. Lots of migrants trying to cross the border and they are low on money. Definitely would not walk around in Pasto at night.