In 2017 we went on a family holiday to Europe and, after a wonderful week in London, hopped on the Eurostar to travel to Paris. Our welcome to Paris began with three rather unsavoury gentlemen dragging me off a metro train while trying to relieve me of my wallet, phone and passports.

Let me tell you the story.

I’m pretty safety conscious when I travel and, up to this moment, had never had any problems.

I make sure my wallet and phone are inside a jacket pocket or buttoned up in my cargo pants. I’m always aware of my surroundings and try not to stand out.

But it’s difficult to blend in at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris when you’re a family of four who has just walked out of the Eurostar arrivals gate and are each carrying a large suitcase and backpacks. It’s pretty obvious you’re a tourist.

The Eurostar trip from London to Paris was fun!

So we’d arrived at Gare du Nord and promptly bought our Navigo tickets so we could travel on the Metro. We were staying near where Canal Saint-Martin meets the Seine and knew we had to catch the Metro to the Quai de la Rapee station on the number 5 line. After spending a week navigating the Tube in London we were confident in our abilities to use the Paris Metro. Plus, we had the CityMapper app to help guide us. What could possibly go wrong?

This is where the problems begin.

We went to the platform for the number 5 train and waited for one to arrive. It’s not one of the most popular train lines so the platform wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be. Bear in mind we’d just spent a week travelling on the London Tube and were used to congested platforms.

When the train did arrive, it was pretty full so there was no way we’d get a seat. My preference was to wait for another train – I didn’t want to get on to this one with all our luggage – but my family had already jumped into a carriage so I followed them. We stood in the area between the train doors, away from the seating. We didn’t have a long trip, so standing wasn’t much of a problem.

I soon became aware that I had been followed on by three rather tall and large gentlemen who proceeded to position themselves around me.

I was facing into the centre of the carriage, between the doors and as the train started up I realised these three guys weren’t moving anywhere. They could have spread out more, but didn’t.

That’s when the warning bells in my brain began to sound.

One guy was standing on the left of me, by my left leg. He had a jacket draped over his arm, covering up his hand. As the train moved, he gently bumped into me with that arm and I felt his hand around the top of my side pants pocket.

Another guy was in front of me to my left. He was politely repositioning my suitcase which had rolled against him and said a number of times “Don’t worry. It’s alright.” All in very good English. I’m assuming his job was to reassure the person who was about to be pickpocketed that everything was okay.

The third guy was to my right. I don’t think he tried to get into my right side pockets – he just stood there, blocking my way so I couldn’t move.

It was at this point that I realised it wasn’t an accident that these guys had come and stood next to me. I knew they were about to pickpocket me.

A lot of things go through your mind at a time like this. I was actually amazed at how rational I was considering what was about to go down.

I decided to not make a fuss by yelling at the guys and letting them know I knew what they were up to. I was worried that if I did that, they’d be a lot more forceful with me and possibly resort to violence.

I also knew that all my valuables were safely in either my inside jacket pocket (it was zipped up) or the thigh pockets on my cargo pants. So unless they held me firmly, they weren’t going to get access to anything there.

My next thought was about my backpack. I didn’t want to take it off because then it would be easy for them to grab and run off with so I kept it on my back. I’ve heard stories of people using a knife to slice open the bottom of backpacks and steal the contents and I didn’t want that to happen. So I kept an eye on the guy to my right to make sure he didn’t get too close to my backpack. The other thing I’d learnt to do is to keep moving slowly from side to side and back and forth to make it harder for one of the three to open the zips on my backpack without me noticing.

Next, I tried to warn my family about what was going on. Because I didn’t want my three new French friends to know that I was aware what they were up to, I couldn’t speak to my family and let them know what was happening. Also, I was concerned that if the alarm was raised, my French friends may try and steal my wife’s or my kid’s bags. Or worse – get violent with them.

So I tried to get eye contact with my family to make them aware of what was happening, but it didn’t work. It’s difficult to get eye contact with people who are within a couple of metres of you when you’re trying to evade the attention of three large guys who are trying to pick your pockets. I realised I couldn’t multitask so decided to focus on my pickpocketing friends.

I was aware from my research (yes, I did research about the risks of travelling) that most pickpockets want to quickly do what they do and move on. They don’t want any attention. And they know it’s a numbers game – if they’re unsuccessful with one, they’ll move on to someone else.

So I figured that they wouldn’t stay on the train for long – probably only to the next stop. Based on this, I realised I had to play dumb, make it hard for them to take anything, and put up with this for a couple more minutes.

All of the above went through my mind in a matter of seconds. It’s amazing how clearly you can think in times of pressure!

Overall, the Metro was great to use. It’s just that our first experience wasn’t so great.

Every 20 seconds or so the guy to my left ‘bumped’ into me and his covered hand went deeper and deeper into my left pants pocket. At the same time this was going on, the guy in front of me would smoothly adjust the position of my suitcase and let me know “Don’t worry. It’s alright.” The guy on my right didn’t do much – I was still trying to figure out his role.

In between this I’d try to get eye contact with my family but to no avail.

After a couple of minutes, we arrived at the next station. I figured they’d probably get off here after a last feel of my pocket, but I wasn’t ready for what actually happened.

They guy who’d been picking my pocket grabbed me under my left shoulder (my back was to the now opened train door), the guy on my right grabbed me under my right shoulder and the man in front followed with my suitcase as they walked off the train, dragging me with them.

As this is happening I’m feeling hands in both my left and right pockets – nothing subtle about this at this point.

I can imagine that if I wasn’t aware of what was going on, this would have been a massive shock and I probably would have panicked and lost my bag, phone, wallet and probably my suitcase.

But I was expecting something to happen so I was more prepared.

As they started to drag me off, I wanted them to know that I knew what was going on. So I started shouting to them, told them to “F— off” and “Get your hands off me.” I wanted them to realise I wasn’t going to go quietly, and I wanted everyone around me on the train to know what was going on.

The thing I remember most at this stage was the look on my wife’s face as I’m getting dragged off this train – she had no idea up to this point that anything was remiss.

I figured at this stage I only had seconds to go until these guys would move off. I also assumed that most train stations would have video cameras that would be capturing what was going on.

I was under no illusions that if the police had the CCTV footage they’d be able to do anything, but I thought that these guys probably didn’t want to be on the camera footage for any longer than they had to.

So I yelled at them, I moved and pushed them away and they let go and walked off.

And I was left standing on a train platform with my suitcase, shaken. But I hadn’t lost anything – I still had my wallet, passport and phone.

I grabbed my suitcase, walked back on the train and looked around me to make sure these guys had gone, and that no-one else had taken their place.

Next, I made sure my family were okay – the whole incident was unexpected and surprising after our pleasant experiences in London.

Eventually, we made it to Quai de la Rapee, got off the train, walked very closely together (by this stage I’m extremely paranoid) and arrived at our accommodation.

Welcome to Paris!

Here’s what I learnt from this experience.

Expect the worst

I’d read about the dangers of crime on a few forums and knew it wasn’t necessarily specific to a particular city but could happen anywhere. We live in Adelaide, Australia and our crime rates are pretty low here. I’d spent some time explaining to my family about the potential dangers in the places we were going to visit and how important it was to be vigilant and make sure all valuables were protected.

Because I’d done some research, I wasn’t totally surprised when this happened and I had a couple of rational ideas around how to handle it.

You can’t blend in all the time.

When you’re standing on a train platform in Paris with four suitcases, backpacks and speaking with an Australian accent, it’s pretty hard to blend in. Be aware of this and understand that this could raise the risk factors.

Some places are higher risk than others

If I was looking to pickpocket naive travellers, I’d start at a large train station where thousands of visitors transit every day. Whenever you travel, some places will be a higher risk. It doesn’t mean you don’t go to them, it just means you take more precautions. In hindsight, I would have waited for another train with more space rather than jumping on to a packed train.

When we left Paris a week later to travel by train to Normandy we took an Uber from our apartment to the station. Yes, it cost a bit more than the Metro, but it was the safest option considering we had our suitcases. We figured from a risk management point of view this was the best thing to do.

Pickpockets Don’t Want Attention

They want to blend in, do their job quickly and move on to the next person. For them, it’s a numbers game. Grab enough wallets and you’ll make enough money. If they can’t get what they want quickly and easily, they’ll move on. Don’t make it easy for them.

Also, don’t take it personally – they don’t hate you specifically – you’re just an unlucky random person they’ve targeted.

From what I’ve read, I figured these guys would start at the platform at Gare du Nord, get on a train that runs on one of the not-so-busy lines, do their job, get off at the next station and catch a train back to Gare du Nord where they would start again. They have their routine and don’t want attention.

As I mentioned earlier, I was torn between making a big fuss on the train or pretending I was ignorant. If I made a fuss on the train, I was worried they’d get violent. You make your own choice but think about this before you’re in this position.

Very Few People Care

I don’t want to sound negative about French people – most of the ones we met were fantastic – but I’ll never forget the look on the faces of the people who were on that train and saw what happened. Most avoided looking at me after the event.

When we were first on the train before I was dragged off, some looked at the guys, some looked away, but no-one challenged them or warned us. Perhaps they didn’t want to get involved, perhaps they were scared of being attacked, perhaps they were just used to it happening. I don’t know. But I’m glad I had my family with me afterwards because I was a bit of an emotional wreck.

Take Precautions

There are some simple steps to take. I wore cargo pants almost exclusively for the trip and they had thigh pockets that were covered with a velcro flap. I also wore jackets that had inside pockets. On public transport and in crowded areas, I zipped up my jacket and had my wallet and phone secure in that inside pocket. Sometimes we also had those invisible travel belts that sit inside your pants.

Between my cargo pants pockets and jacket, I was confident that my valuables were relatively safe. Of course, an exceptionally talented pickpocket would probably still rob me, but coming back to my earlier point that they don’t want attention, if you make it hard for them, they’ll probably move on to someone else.

We all had backpacks but made sure there was nothing valuable in them.

Don’t Telegraph Where Your Valuables Are Kept

I read an article about one of the European train lines where they had a sign up on the platforms that said to take care of your valuables. The problem was that people would read the sign and touch the pockets that their phones and wallets were kept in. While this was happening, a potential pickpocketer was watching and now knew where their valuables were positioned, making it easier to select their prey. When I was on the train with my three criminal friends around me, I resisted the urge to touch my pockets. Instead, I stretched my upper body and felt my wallet and phone in my breast pocket as my jacket tightened. I also knocked my leg against my suitcase and felt my passport in there. So I knew where things were without making it obvious.

Have a Backup Plan

When we travel, we keep a copy of all our travel documents (passports, copies of credit cards etc) in a DropBox folder. If we lose them, we have easy access to the copies from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

We have a couple of different credit cards and keep one in my wallet, and one with my wife. So if one is stolen, we still have another one to use.

We make sure that the Find My iPhone option is set up on all our phones and Apple devices, so if one is stolen, we can track it and wipe it if we need to.

You can never be 100% sure you won’t get mugged or simply lost something, so have a plan in place in case this happens because you don’t want it to ruin your trip.

Enjoy Your Holiday

It was a pretty crappy start to the French leg of our holiday. That day was also our 25th wedding anniversary and we had dinner booked at the Eiffel Tower. I was still pretty shaken from the mugging and was pretty paranoid on the Metro heading to the Eiffel Tower. I relaxed more once we actually arrived at the restaurant and could enjoy the experience.

The next day we went on a walking tour of Paris and it was the best thing we did. We got to walk around Paris, see lots of the good side to this beautiful city, and our guide was able to reassure us that the city was really pretty safe and we’d just had a bad experience.

The We Go Walking Tour Of Paris Was The Best!

I was still more vigilant for the rest of the week in Paris, but nothing else happened.

So that’s the story about that time I was mugged in Paris. Hopefully, it will be the first and last story about mugging that I ever have to talk about!

If you travel, there’s a possibility that something similar will happen to you. There are steps you can take to reduce the risk, but you can’t remove it completely.

If it does happen, be prepared and take precautions to minimise the risks and potential loss.

And above all else – enjoy your holiday.

I’d love your thoughts and comments – have you ever been mugged? What precautions do you take?

Please leave a comment below.