The ever-brilliant Callejeros on Spanish TV channel Cuatro ran an episode called “Al Ladron” (“The Thief”) in their seventh season. As you can guess it was centered on Barcelona, and more specifically on the beach area of Barceloneta.
They also cover the story of the now famous Iliana who goes after pickpockets with whistles and hands out fliers to tourists warning them of the dangers.
“Barcelona is the European city with the greatest number of pickpockets,” says the presenter at the start, “they produce more than 300 incidents daily.”
He goes on to say, “on line 3 of Barcelona’s metro there are alone two hundreds thieves working.”
At the start we see a chap walking off the beach towards the camera with a bag in his hand, the reporters says to him… “This bag isn’t yours…” – watch the full clip to find out how the reporter knows.
A moment later we’re shown a thief running off the beach. He gets onto his bicycle to escape. Watch closely and you’ll see he’s not alone. Thieves very rarely work alone in this city.
The camera follows another guy on the beach who picks up three bags and walks off. The cameraman runs in chase and gets the bags back.
A moment later, a Danish couple robbed of so many possessions that the lady has to cover her chest with a towel because her bikini has been taken, and the man has to go to the police station in just a pair of shorts because he has no other clothes to put on. They change their flight to leave Barcelona the next day.
The video can be viewed here: http://www.mitele.es/programas-tv/callejeros/temporada-7/programa-271/
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That Channel 4 report is really great.
What has happened? This was once one of the safest, most admired countries in the world.
Recently I got got by the BCN local police for jumping a red light. I did not do it. I am a Brit. We take these thing seriously. I asked for their evidence, video , CCTV but it appears that their word is better than mine so it is just a tax , like in Central African countries. The RACC just laughed at the naive foreigner.
It is strange to think that Catalonia has more police , thousands more, than in Franco’s last days. They have really thrown the baby out with the bath water. ( God help me! I never thought I would say that!)
It was interesting to see ladies selling lottery tickets .. armed. Good people with sprays, baseball bats, even knives (to open the mail).
I read in my economics books at university that society disintegrates if unemployment reaches over 25%. I laughed. Now I know better.
Iain, do you happen to know if the Channel 4 report is live on the net anywhere? That separate from the series “Our man in…” right, because I believe that featured Barcelona also. Want to see both.
I was in Barcelona last week. I saw the aftermath of three pickpocket incidents in 2 days – it is so sad to see. I also saw packs of gysies “casing” the crowd and the scammer gambling teams. I was sat on the 1st floor of my hotel, overlooking the Rambla one morning and also saw the police just standing around not watching the crowd, except when they booked two cyclists, one for not wearing a shirt, the other for wearing earphones while cycling. There were no warnings in my hotel nor on the plane about the pickpocket situation. Luckily I had checked on the internet and took precautions and avoided the metro. As a lone traveller I did not feel safe at all on the street and on that basis will not be going back to Barcelona.
I have been travelling around the world for more than 50 years and I must say I have just had two problems with pickpockets in all my life, The first one was in 1980 in London, We were a group of four students walking around the Soho and I collided with a man at the same time that another one collided with me from behind. Everything was very polite, all of us said ” sorry” sorry and sorry”, and I didn’t notice anything until I put my hand on the back pocket of my trousers a minute later, My wallet had disappeared with all our money. “It seems they are working hard tonight” a boby told me at the Police Station.
The second one was in Xian in China in 2008 some days before the Olympic games, I was with my family in a Macdonalds, I left my camera on the table while my sons were asking for something to eat at the bar and two girls showed me a ring on the floor, I bent down to take the ring and they took my bag with the camera.I gave them the ring and they were very pleased. Fortunately cameras are very cheap in China.
These kind of things could happen everywhere, at any time. By the way I have come back to London more than 20 times and I wish to come back to China again in the future.
Fortunately , in Europe, we have no violence on the streets as I could see in the USA on a Saturday night in New Orleans when some people had drunk more than recommended and they had even guns.
If you come back to Barcelona enjoy our city but take care of your belongings, and if you understand Spanish try to catch the accent or the language most of the pickpockets use, you will be surprised, they are mostly foreigners., look at the statistics, from the North of Africa and from East Countries.