Foto: iglesiaspilarin
Guestpost by Suzanne M.
This is my story of how I was mugged and mistreated in Barcelona.
I was with two female friends walking back to my hotel after dinner on our second day in town. I wanted to take a taxi but my friend said she was sure the neighborhood was safe. Big mistake.
We were in Raval, near the modern art museum, when three guys jumped out of a doorway. I had a shoulder bag and at first I thought some drunken man was trying to dance with me, as I was being twirled around. I don’t think I could have done anything, even if I’d realized what was happening.
They managed to get the bag off me, almost choking me in the process. Then they shoved me with tremendous force. I landed on the cobblestones, with the back of my head taking the brunt of the force. There were kids with a car on their way out dancing and they stopped and called an ambulance and gave me a towel from the car, as I was bleeding heavily. The police came but when they discovered that an ambulance had been called, they just told me to move my body to the side of the street, and they left.
The ambulance attendant kept saying, “I hate this town. So many people get hurt.” At the hospital, a doctor came and did the elementary tests: “How many fingers am I holding up?” etc. I asked the doctor when they would do a CAT scan… he said, “Oh, you don’t need one, you’re alright.” I asked when they would stitch up my head…. he said, “The bleeding will stop eventually, you can leave now.”
My head bled all through the night until the morning.
The people at the hotel (H10) were very nice. They said they felt responsible, they said someone should have told me it was never safe to walk in Barcelona. I stayed in my room the next day. I was very traumatized and I just wanted to fly home (Italy). Luckily, I’d left my passport locked-up at the hotel. All I wanted to do was leave. I got a flight and as soon as I got back, friends took me to the hospital for a CAT scan
I had concussion, and the doctor told me I was very lucky because I should never have been allowed to fly. He said it was clear they’d kicked me out of hospital so it wouldn’t appear on record that they’d had an admission to the emergency room for someone injured in a robbery. It was as if I’d never been there — there was no record.
I’ve warned people ever since about Barcelona. A year after my experience, my 74-year-old male neighbour was dragged down La Ramblas because a thief had grabbed his camera bag, which was around his neck and it didn’t come off. His wife ran after them, screaming, and finally the strap broke and the thief ran off with the bag. She said the street was filled with people who just stood and watched.
I had to go back to Barcelona a year later. I took a taxi to the hotel where my two days of meetings were and I never went outside. I will never go to Barcelona again, and I try to warn others not to go. It took almost a year before I stopped reliving the experience in my sleep as nightmares.
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“someone should have told me it was never safe to walk in Barcelona”
If someone did tell you that, they’d clearly be lying. Barcelona is one of the best cities in the world to explore on foot. If you were talking about Homs in Syria, you may have had a valid point. Sorry you had such a bad time, but Barcelona is not a war zone and is a relatively safe city to explore on foot – it’s safer than many other European cities. Like most other cities though, some areas should be avoided unless you are street wise.
I agree with Neil, I walk around all day, every day, and in all areas, and have done for 9 years here. And as a blonde it’s obvious that I’m foreign. But walking like you know where you’re going helps. You DO have to be careful though, it’s true. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience.
Oh, and a hospital has cheated me too, by changing my admission time to meet their targets, and therefore making it impossible to prove my accident to the insurance company….
I’ve lived here 32 years. I’ve been robbed: once in my flat in the 80′s, but they only took a DVD player, and pickpocketed three times. Not a bad record. However, if something like this, and worse a violent mugging, happens to you in any city, it’s stigmatized for the rest of your life. It’s all about circumstances. I love Barcelona, and will continue to walk in the Raval at night, but street smart, like I tell all my guests.
You had a DVD player in the 80s?
Spain has a huge public deficit and hospitals are under pressure to reduce costs. A CAT-scan costs 600 EUR. When a patient has lost consciousness or is using blood-thinners they´ll do a scan, but not for a “regular” injury and definitely not on a patient´s request.
After all it looks like the doctor made the right decision, despite the conspiracy theory of his Italian counterpart.
Yeah this article is a full of it…
and there is the real shame:
“His wife ran after them, screaming, and finally the strap broke and the thief ran off with the bag. She said the street was filled with people who just stood and watched.”
Well, it´s awful what happened to the writer but it really does not mean that Barcelona is not safe and that one should never walk anywhere. I live in Raval almost exactly where this incident occured, and in my year living here I have never felt threatened nor see anyone else get robbed, and I am blonde and obviously a foreigner. Furthermore all of my expat friends have lived here for years without incident. WHat is the worrying part of the article is her treatment by the hospital, that they would just dismiss her and send her home.
Barcelona authorities don’t care about the massive rate of street crime. I have family living there and they agree that the police turn a blind eye to crime because the perpetrators are released if the amount stolen is less than €400. My daughter has been mugged, I have been mugged and i know countless acquaintances who have been robbed. Barcelona is very unsafe and I’m amazed that people try to excuse it.
do not visit this city, thiefs on every corner, they will not do anything until we stop going there and spending our money, i have been in many cities of this world and nowhere is street crime on this level so openly ignored by the authorities. i will never return
But the fact of the matter is that many of the thieves are gypsies and people from other countries who have free access throughout Europe. If tourists stop going to Barcelona and visiting Rome instead, these thieves might move there and then Rome will have a similar situation. Just my two cents!
its not that there is thieves, its the fact that that the police do nothing to prevent it