• 15
  Jun
  2009

• Theft while travelling

  
  Filed Under:
  Author: Anupama

How often have we heard of thefts while travelling abroad? Loss of wallet and passport or valuables is unfortunately a common occurrence. While one is happily relishing the sights in the foreign place a smart thief does away with our valuables. And that’s exactly what happened to a friend of mine while she was on her foreign vacation.

Being a cautious person herself she had adhered to all the advices of being safe, carrying backpack in the front of her person, hiding money, travelling in groups, never keeping notes/cards/passport together. But as luck may have it, she lost her wallet and travel documents. But the good part was that she held on to her nerves and quickly did a few things that saved her some losses.

The first thing she did was to borrow some money from her friend and call up her bank in her home country. She requested them to bar all transactions on her debit and credit cards. But partial damage had been done by then when she learnt that a few hundred dollars had already been spent through her debit card by the thief. Once this was done she went to the nearest police station and gave a written complaint. Although the chances of her ever recovering the wallet and travel documents were almost nil but a written complaint is utmost essential in order to protect oneself from the misuse of such important contents. The local embassy can be of much help in such situations and she called them to get some advice and directions on how she could get back.

Insurance policies for travel do cover theft to a certain extent but these policies are mainly aimed at business travelers. If claiming for theft, you must file a police report about the theft and get documentation.

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