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Pockets picked in St Petersburg Russia

Pockets picked in St Petersburg Russia

Old Oct 14, 2015, 2:22 pm
  #1  
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Pockets picked in St Petersburg Russia

We had only been in St Petersburg for a couple of hours when I had all my cash stolen from one of my trouser pockets on the Metro.

We were on the platform waiting for a train and it was rush hour so there were literally thousands of people around and inside the station. One strange thing I noticed was an empty plastic bottle appear at my feet from what appeared to be nowhere seconds before the train arrived.

I suspect it was a 'marker' for the pickpocket gangs.

When the train doors opened there was a mad rush and we felt ourselves literally forced onto the train by people behind us. It was an incredibly unnerving experience. There was no room on the train so were absolutely packed in like sardines. This is the point I suspect my pockets were picked. An attempt was also made to force the zip on my partner's handbag, resulting in the zip becoming damaged.

When we got to our stop and exited the train carriage, I did my customary check of all my belongings and noticed my cash was missing. Someone had taken all 6,500 RUB (around 65 GBP). Luckily my credit card in my other pocket was not stolen so we located an ATM and I withdrew some cash as we needed it for taxis.

So, be careful on the St Petersburg metro. We will not use it anymore and will stick to taxis which are reasonably priced and less stressful.

It wasn't a nice start to our short Autumn break but it wasn't a great deal of money and could have been far worse.

We managed to have a lovely evening and look forward to enjoying the rest our stay here in St Petersburg.

The moral of the story is to travel with the minimum amount of cash you need and to secure it as much as you can. Keep anything valuable zipped up and out of sight.

I've never experienced pick-pocketing in 30 years of travel until today.
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Old Oct 15, 2015, 5:09 am
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Sorry to hear this but luckily, it was "only" cash. It would have been more annoying had it been credit cards or passport.

Apologies for asking the obvious but did you do/wear anything that would have made them notice you are a foreigner?

Anyway, I guess it is just bad luck - hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!
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Old Oct 15, 2015, 5:32 am
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A few years ago I got a lesson in the art of Russian pickpocketing when we visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The crowed was so dense inside I couldn't take it and went out to the parking lot to await the rest of the tour group where I had an excellent view of the technique as it was done. A couple of pickpockets would target a tourist, come up quickly from behind and "accidently" jostle him, then quickly move away. By the time the tourist discovered his loss, the pickpockets had melted back into the crowd and were targeting their next victim. I watched it happen three times -quick and slick each time - and no police in sight anywhere in the parking lot.
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Old Oct 15, 2015, 12:03 pm
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We're visiting the Hermitage Museum tomorrow and we'll be on our guard. Thanks for the heads up. We're avoiding any place with large jostling crowds and had a fantastic day today.
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Old Oct 15, 2015, 12:14 pm
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Originally Posted by JFSV
Sorry to hear this but luckily, it was "only" cash. It would have been more annoying had it been credit cards or passport.

Apologies for asking the obvious but did you do/wear anything that would have made them notice you are a foreigner?

Anyway, I guess it is just bad luck - hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!
Yes, absolutely we looked like foreigners/tourists! Whilst we were careful not to wear jewellery, I think our clothes didn't really fit in and we were a little confused about the Metro system. I can read Russian reasonably well in terms of letters (Cyrillic alphabet) but struggle with anything more than basic phrases.

Also, we had never been on the SPB Metro before, we looked confused so we were easy meat for the pick-pockets.

And, yes, it's that crazy jostling where you're pushed forwards and you don't really know what's going on which is the MO for the SPB criminal fraternity.

I'm just hoping that anyone who has read of my experiences this week can take measures to prevent the same thing happening to them.
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Old Oct 16, 2015, 9:11 am
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It's unfortunate to hear that you were pick-pocketed, but if it happened on the street level, would you warn people against visiting all of St. Petersburg, as opposed to just the metro?
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Old Oct 17, 2015, 2:48 am
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St Petersburg is a lovely city to visit. I'm just warning people to be on their guard on the Metro during rush hour.

The mass of people and the pushing is something I've never experienced anywhere that I've travelled to before. Obviously there's a small number of people, as there are in most cities, who will take advantage of the situation for their own criminal activities.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 8:44 am
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Personally I usually go out the first day on a trip as a feeler. I go with nothing. Literally a couple bucks, MAYBE a debit/credit card (I've got multiple credit so if one does get pinches, life isn't over) and a photocopy of my passport. That's it.

I don't scout sites specifically, but I just wanna get a general feeling for the city. You can usually kinda decide if you're gonna be safe, or not. Obviously this isn't scientific, stuff can happen anywhere/anytime, but after walking the so called dangerous neighborhood in San Jose, CR at night I deemed it safe enough. So while the next night I didn't go cavalier, I did relax a bit.

I also generally like to stand away from crowds, not as a precaution per se but because I don't like to be mixed in like that. In Medellin I'm almost always the last one on the metro. Now, at rush hour it's harder, but I'd rather miss a train, than have this happen. Plus, from there, you can scope out people too. Not that you wanna brand anyone with that pickpocket brush, but if you had seen this water bottle get dropped at someone else's feet, MAYBEEEEE you'd have an itch and be like "what's up with that".

Glad you only lost a bit of cash though. As always never travel with a passport unless you have to. IE from the airport to hotel. My other trick, and as dumb as this may sound, I've usually got my hands in my pockets. If I can, both, if I need to hang on to a rail or something, I usually try and keep the one with valuables. MAYBE that makes me more obvious but then at the very least they'll have to get my hand out of there before they can pinch anything and that's IF anything is in there.

One other thing I often do, I don't stop moving much. Maybe it's just an OCD thing I have but when waiting for a train I'll usually tour the platform, walk back and forth, pace, whatever...again away from the crowd. So perhaps there's less likely a chance of being marked?
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 9:03 am
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Aren't foreigners required to carry passports in Russia? I know that police in Moscow would sometimes do ID checks and demand passports or bribes from anyone who looked like a foreigner.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 11:14 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Aren't foreigners required to carry passports in Russia? I know that police in Moscow would sometimes do ID checks and demand passports or bribes from anyone who looked like a foreigner.
Looks like you're right, based on the Canadian government page, but it also says you can't take pictures of the metro among other places. So I wonder, maybe it's just hit or miss.

I can't imagine I'm gonna carry my passport around all the time, not only is that risky it's also a hassle. I'll probably do what I did in Brazil which was a laminated copy of my passport ID page, then the visa page. FWIW the Canadian govt website advises that plus a piece of original ID, like a drivers license.

I've never lost my passport before, but I can't imagine how awful/difficult it'd be to get a replacement in 1 day while in Russia.

Maybe I'll ask here, anyone had any problems NOT carrying their original passport on them?
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 11:19 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Aren't foreigners required to carry passports in Russia?
Technically no (neither are locals), but you can get detained for hours without an ID. However for an US or EU citizen carrying a photocopy of the passport and the Russian visa may be enough - the police will not be interested in you unless they have a genuine reason for it.

ADD: Not sure if it applies to foreigners, but age matters: when I was 25, I got my docs checked at least once a month. I'm 35 now and the last time the police asked for my passport several years ago. YMMW
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 1:23 pm
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That's the kinda answer I was hoping for. I got stopped in Costa Rica and told them why I only had a photocopy, same in Colombia. Both times the cops were kinda like "yea I suppose that's true". But at the same time, I offer to go back to my hotel and show them the original if necessary.

At 30 I wouldn't be surprised if I got checked once, and my lack of language skills I feel like might hurt, but I'd rather risk getting detained for no reason and explaining myself, vs having my passport stolen. I think both are kinda equally likely to happen just by chance, but the cost between the two situations isn't equitable.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 11:02 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I know that police in Moscow would sometimes do ID checks and demand passports or bribes from anyone who looked like a foreigner.
Not just any foreigner but rather migrant workers from Central Asian republics Russian police rarely bother white European-looking tourists.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 1:30 am
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Originally Posted by Knig
Not just any foreigner but rather migrant workers from Central Asian republics Russian police rarely bother white European-looking tourists.
+1

I have definitely never been asked to provide ID and in fact I never carry the passport with me but rather leave it in the hotel room. So I was asked, I guess I would try to explain (in my best Russian) that my passport is at Hotel X and hope it works
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 11:44 pm
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Originally Posted by Knig
Not just any foreigner but rather migrant workers from Central Asian republics Russian police rarely bother white European-looking tourists.
They are also routinely "inspecting" Asian, i.e. Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists and residents in order to get them to pay bribes against immediate release.
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