How To Minimize Theft Risk While Traveling

One thing I hear all the time from my friends and family is “Be careful!” “Colombia isn’t safe!” “What if you get robbed?”. While petty theft is a little more common outside of the US, it can happen anywhere. There are tons of places in Colombia where I have felt more safe walking around at night than I have felt anywhere in the US, but… this article is about theft. I’ll get into the specifics of what to do with my phone and wallet order to avoid being an easy target, and what I do to be able to recover quickly if I get robbed (which fortunately hasn’t happened). 

Here my best advice to Minimize Theft Risk while Traveling!

The town of Salento is safe to walk 24/7. A small town with lots of tourists, well lit streets, a large police presence, and all the locals know each other. A great place to spend a week!

Mitigating Theft

Theft can happen anywhere, so it’s good to have your head on a swivel when walking around crowded areas or alone down alleyways. Also, be hyper aware of your surroundings when drinking alcohol. Being drunk in an unfamiliar place is the MOST likely scenario for theft. Anywhere in the world, drunkenly saying the wrong thing to the wrong person can and will cause trouble. I’m not a big drinker, so I haven’t had to worry about this too much. Anyways, here are some tips that I follow anytime I’m in a large city, or a place known for theft.

Tips for Minimizing Risk of Theft

 

• • While you’re walking, make eye contact with people you pass by so they know that you noticed them. This on its own is enough to deter a pickpocket looking for an ignorant tourist to take from.

• • I don’t keep a smiling face all the time. Not that I look angry or sad or anything, but since I’m a few inches taller than most people in Latin America and I have maybe a bit of a grumpy look on my face, people are less likely to approach. In a very busy street market, the smiling tourist is the preferred target to sell something to or to ask for money.

• • If you’re going to carry a backpack, try to use one that doesn’t look brand new with a flashy brand. Ideally, it will have zippers outside and zippered pockets inside. These add more obstacles to wandering hands. Plus, the sound of a zipper opening might act as an alarm to get your attention.

• • When you see anyone walking around nearby with their backpack in front of them on their chest, you should too. The locals know the area better than you, so mimic what they do.

• • In a crowded area or places known for snatch theft, your phone and wallet should stay in your front pockets. If you can, your hands should stay in your pockets with them. A fanny pack across your chest is a good place to keep these things too. However, in some places, fanny packs might make you look more like a tourist. Find a balance between keeping your things secure without standing out.

• • You should avoid taking your phone and wallet out in public places. An distracted tourist taking a photo or counting cash is an easy target. Count your money in a safe place before paying a street vendor in a crowded market. Step into a store to memorize map directions. Be aware of your surroundings and how you grip your phone when taking a photo in a highly trafficked area.

• • Never use your phone while standing on the curb of a busy street. That is exactly what a snatch thief on a bike wants to see. In Colombia, this kind of theft is so common, it has a slang word – “Raponazo”. In an area where it happens often, you might see signs on restaurant doors that say things like “No sacas tu celular, rapanazo en la zona”. This means “Don’t take out your phone, snatch thief in the area”. You have to understand that an iPhone in Latin America is worth months of minimum wage, so it’s an easy thing for a thief to pawn.

The tips above are great for avoiding petty theft, but if someone threatens you with a weapon, never resist. Nothing you carry is worth your life.

You might think it won’t happen to you, but if you walk down Septima street in the center Bogota, you’ll see thousands of watches and phones being sold on blankets out in the open. Not saying they’re all stolen, but I’m not sure where a street peddler gets ahold of Rolexes and Omegas missing their official papers, and cracked screen phones with no boxes or chargers…

Since losing my phone or wallet would totally suck, here’s a couple things I do so if I get robbed or lose anything, I can recover quickly.

Wallet

The cash carrying threshold varies for different people. In obviously safer areas (like Salento), I feel comfortable carrying more cash, but petty theft is common in larger cities in Colombia and I do my best not to let my guard down by carrying too much. Most days, I carry between $100,000 to $200,000 pesos, which is about $25-50 USD. This is enough to pay for a full day of meals for two people. If I’m going to go shopping for something I know will cost more, I’ll carry more in a different place.

My wallet has an old ID and some expired credit cards so it is a convincing substitute for my real wallet (which stays in the hotel with my passport and emergency cash, locked up if possible) if a thief wanted to interrupt my day by asking for it. For this reason also, I’ll keep some of that money in a different pocket so at least I have enough for a taxi home if I lose my wallet. The more places you can store cash on your body, the better!

Additionally, I keep an extra phone in my hotel as well, in case I lose my main phone to theft. Snatch theft is super common on busy streets, where someone on the back of a motorcycle sees you obliviously staring down at your phone, and quickly jumps off the bike to take it out of your hand. If you stand close enough curb, they might not even stop riding and grab it from you in motion. This isn’t just a tourist issue, it happens to locals everyday. For this reason most people keep their phones in their pockets and step into a store if they need to check their maps or take a call.

Phone

I carry my iPhone 13 most days, using a Colombian sim card from their largest provider, Claro. This was my main phone in the states and has a really nice camera for casual pictures day-to-day. At the hotel, an old iPhone 8+ stays locked up with my passport and other important things.

The old phone has my US sim card, which I have on the cheapest plan available with Verizon. On that plan, I pay per gig of data, which is almost nothing because it is almost always on airplane mode. I also have unlimited calls/texts when I’m in the US, and it costs $0.15 US per minute of calls or per text from Colombia. The benefit of keeping my phone plane is that I can receive verification texts when I log into my banking app from time to time.

There might be a better way to do this for free ( as in no international calls/texts) with authenticator apps, but not all banks/secure apps offer authenticator apps as a verification option instead of a phone call or text, so this is how I do it. BE SURE to check the prices for international calls and texts in the country you’re in, it’s not the same everywhere.

I have also heard of people porting their number on google voice, which automatically cancels the phone plan while keeping your number yours. This makes sense for expats, but I visit friends and family in the states frequently so I haven’t made a big switch like that yet.

There’s a phrase in Spanish…

“No dar papaya” = Don’t give papaya.

This is a Colombian expression that basically means don’t put yourself in a vulnerable position. That summarizes all the tips and tricks I talked about here. However you want to handle yourself and your belongings is up to you. Just depends what makes you comfortable, which hopefully involves reducing your vulnerabilities.

If you leave your iPhone on a table while you go to the bathroom and you come back to it missing, you gave papaya! This expression is so common, that I’ve even heard it from our elderly hosts when we ask if the area is safe. “Yes you can walk around here at night, but just don’t give papaya…”

How I manage my phone and wallet is what makes me feel at ease when I’m traveling. If you think I should add some other tips or you think you have a better system for managing your things, reach out and let me know! I love hearing how what other people have learned and experienced in their travels.

Cheers!

 

 

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