Foto: Hilda Tong
Gold chain thievery is in vogue in Barcelona.
Over the past two weeks we have been sent a number of first person accounts about gold chains being plucked from necks, and bracelets from wrists.
We hear about bag snatching, pickpocketing, robbery on the beach and robbery on the metro system, but face-to-face chain snatching hasn’t come up on the radar before.
On August 1st, contributor Jaana from Finland told us: “(I was…) walking down a tourist walk, a black man on a bicycle approached, stopped and grabbed my necklace and snatched it off me and continued around the corner. It was light, 8pm in the evening and done in seconds. People were around but no one did anything to stop it.”
On August 5th, contributor Richard from the US told us: “My wife was physically assaulted and robbed in broad daylight at 2 pm on carrer de la princesa near the Picasso museum in front of MANY people today. Two men approached her and violently ripped 2 necklaces off her neck. I was ten feet in front of her when it occurred and chased them for a kilometer but they lost me in small side streets. I tried to report it to several police officers and the police station in la ramblas, but THEY DO NOT CARE!”
On August 5th again, contributor Judith from Australia told us: “On Sunday afternoon near the Picasso museum with my husband and 2 sons. A man pretending to be a passby turned and assaulted me. I was nicely dressed wearing 2 gold chains. He grabbed my neck so violently to get the chains that I was left bleeding and bruised.”
There was another instance back in April, which we overlooked initially. On April 25th, contributor David from the UK told us: “walking peacefully with an elderly woman (my mother) & we were approached by a North African youth on a bicycle. He rode his bike between us so that we had to part to let him pass & then he grabbed my Mothers chain & snatched it from her neck, scratching her in the process.”
All of the above came through our blog at www.robbedinbarcelona.com
The following was contributed via our Facebook group at www.facebook.com/RobbedInBarcelona
On August 8th, contributor Ieva told us: “In Rec street right now: 10 minutes ago a 90 year granny gets her Gold bracelet stolen, 5 minutes ago, a lady gets her bag ripped, luckily her man gets the thief and a bag. But still 2 ROBBERIES IN 5 minutes. What is this??”
On August 3rd, contributor Gon told us: “I work there around Santa Catarina ‘s Market and I see them every day riding bikes, walking to find victims, and after a few minutes the typical screaming and they running fast away… they dont do bagsnatching… they go almost exclusively after gold necklaces.”
The value of gold has gone up, and with it so have the stakes.
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same story with an elderly friend of mine visiting from quebec: we came out of a restaurant on c/argenteria in the borne and out of nowhere a young man appears and tries to grab my friend’s chain from around his neck – luckily the chain was strong and the would-be thief ran off as fast as he could, empty-handed… but others have not been so lucky… that incident occurred on my friend’s first night in barcelona AFTER listening to my detailed instructions on how to avoid pickpockets! it made me ashamed again to be a barcelonan!
this happened to me last week in the alleyway at the side of the cathedral, a young man approached with a pile of cards in his hand, asking if i would like to go to a nightclub (as happens in many tourist spots around the world), as i was declining he went to put his arm around my shoulder but grabbed my chain and ran up an alleyway,
Same story unfortunately!
Looking for Picasso Museum stopped and while looking around a man charged me grabbed my gold chain and pushed my wife away and escaped down a street in a flash. Many people around but no one paid attention. We took a cab back and the taxi driver told us Romanian men were known for this type of attack. Also he said the Police do nothing!
We drove past a group of 5 Policemen standing around looking to give out traffic violations.
I guess the cops can get money from traffic violations and not from catching thieves.
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