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Re: pickpockets

2009-04-15 14:28:09
More personal comments, based on having lost a laptop to a two-man
team at the exit to the Brussels train station in the last two
months....

I got hit upon arrival to the country, where I was badly jetlagged
after arriving early into London Heathrow, and then taking a
connecting flight to Brussels, and being badly short on sleep before
starting the travel in the first place.  So be especially vigilant on
that first day, when your defenses are down and if you are desperately
tired and/or jet lagged.

In my case, one of them slimed the back of my jacket with spit and a
what appeared to be mouthful of partially chewed sandwidch, and the
other one tried to sell me postcards while babbling in French and
pretending not to know English.  When you're tired, grumpy because the
train station is badly labelled and you're wondering whether you took
the right escalator or not, and are generally lost, it's ridiculously
easy for a pickpocket to overload you enough that while you thought
you should know better, you don't.

Other lessons learned/reinforced --- (1) back up your laptop before
leaving on an trip, (2) keep a backup copy of your presentation on a
USB stick stored separately in the luggage or on some system
accessible outside of your firewall, so you don't have to try to
regenerate it on the fly, (3) keep all sensitive information encrypted
at rest on your hard drive, (4) never, *ever* set down a shoulder bag
even under extreme provocation, (5) if something strange happens to
you, don't stop, don't turn, just keep walking briskly away.

Personally, my experience of Belgium was badly tarnished as a result
of being hit by pickpockets, and I'm not at all keen on wanting to go
back as a result.  So a word to the wise --- be careful out there....
it really can happen to anyone, especially those who thought they were
knew how to be careful enough.

                                               - Ted
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