Wendy called me this morning, and told me her wallet was stolen at Xujiahui.
This is bad news.
It is just 100 meter from where I dropped her off, and her office, and the pocket picker steal her wallet easily and quietly. Typhoon hit Shanghai, and everywhere is wet and everyone is watching their steps, and this is the best time for those bad guys.
Wendy lost all his bank cards (credit cards and debit cards), Sodex card (for use in restaurants), public transportation card, and card to enter our residential area. She also has her National ID in it, plus small amount of cash.
She spent quite some time to call all the related bank to claim the lost of the cards, and it may take much longer to get a new National ID.
So friends, be careful.
I hate pocket pickers.
Second Thoughts
Not many people can make us more angry than a pocket pickers. I hate them. However, my second thoughts are, there are many more people other than pocket picker who took more money from our pocket and did it more frequently, but we never really noticed. There are thousands of ways to do it – legally or non-legally. I recently read many books on financial and politics. That is the reason this pocket picking even made more alerted of those invisible “robberies”.
Poor Wendy!
sorry to hear that. I see guys carrying their wallet in their hip pocket without even buttoning it closed. If I were a pick pocket, it would be easy for me to stick my fingers in their open pocket and grab their wallet.
Poor Wendy. My wife’s wallet was stolen too before the National holiday around Raffles Place, when she was crossing the Xi Zang road. Almost same as Wendy, her cards, IC and some cash in the wallet, all were stolen. But we were lucky, the next day we got a call from an unknown people, he said he got the wallet from a garbage bin then called my wife following her name card inside the wallet. My wife got back her wallet in the same day, no money any more but all the cards and IC were still there. However, we already called banks to block the credit cards and debit cards.
so sorry to hear that. My wife wallet was stolen by a patron who was sitting before her. We just couldn’t believe it. The pick pocket dress as a patron and ordered food in from the restaurant too. I guess everybody has to be alert when you’re walking around in Shanghai. Every where you go, never let your valueble stuff out of side.
Lets face it, the pocket picker will be with us for a long time, just like germs, we have to live with it. However, there are few ways we can do to protect us from the pocket picker and minimize your losses if it happens to you.
When I travel to China, I always carry two wallets. I put one in my hip pocket with a little cash in it just enough for a day’s expanse. Another wallet along with my passport/ID, bank cart, etc, I put them in my passport pouch inside of my pants behind the waist belt. I also store a set of photocopy of my important paper document in home/office. This will make the recovery process much easier if the real thing is lost.
@kukoo, sometimes that happens. The pick pockets often get the cash, and some of them have mercy to throw the rest away (or just don’t want to get any trouble to store them). In this case, your valuable stuff (National ID, and cards) may still get back to you while money is gone.
It seems to have a sticker telling whose those found it, he/she may be able to call.
@ILH, good tip, but…… but….. Every time I lost something, I remember these.
Jian Shuo/Kukoo, it’s a smart thing to block credit cards even u found them back later. What happened to me is I dropped my wallet(not stolen)somewhere. After two weeks, someone called according to my namecard and return the wallet to me without cash inside. A few days later, I got a call from CMB(China Merchant Bank)saying there were two attempted transactions on my credit cards. One in Shenzhen, the other one is online shopping at US. Luckily both didn’t go through as I have reported lose earlier…
I am very sorry to hear that! However, I had the “same” experience with Wendy’s case in Shenzhen at 29/6 this year, but I was ROBBED by two guys riding motorcycle.
Be noted the time, I was walking at a street crowd of people with my father (two men) at noon. That motorcycle just rush toward us and one of them tightly grab the belt of my bag (it was hanging cross my head from my right shoulder to left waist), my poor bag was gone by that kind of huge pulling strength, then they vanished in seconds. Fortunately, I was just hurted my right arm but didn’t tumble (I was heard that someone was killed due to head damage hitting on the ground, and someone’s arm was stumped since they was dragging with the robber). All my FAMILY’s cards and certificates were gone! I was bringing most of my family’s certificates to apply for our new born baby’s Birth Certificate, which is just kept in hand less than two hours. (people in China may know that to apply for Birth Certificate need almost all relative papers of their parent)
In the same day, I checked out the ATM address in which that robber had withdrew 2K RMB from one of my card (this is a brand new card with password in the envelope). I rush to PaiChuSuo to tell the police what happen, the police show me unconcern except for taking an hour for doing record.
Finally, it took me one month to recover most of the cards and certificates. Be awared, loss of ID card can be very dangerous. First, every card and certificate need ID card to apply for. Second, someone with similar similitude can hold your ID card to apply for changing password in the bank, and then take all your money out! All this just base on the visually judgement of the bank clerk.
Also, I got some of my lost things from the picker, but after most of the recovery.
Bill, I do believe what you experienced. People said the difference of losing a wallet in Shenzhen and Guangzhou is, in Guangzhou, it is stolen, and in Shenzhen, it is always robbed.
it’s kinda boring to always hear these kind of things about shenzhen or guangzhou. Actually most of the people i know in SHanghai (chineses or foreigners) have been already stolen at least one time (wallet or mobile). When it happens in Shanghai, it’s “normal”, when it happens in Guangzhou, it’s “dangerous”. I lived in SHanghai, and now in GZ, i don’t really see a big difference about pocket pickers here or there. They are all the same, in all crowdy place all over the world.
Oh,this is really unpleasant!We’ve been stolen the photocamera just inside Ikea on Caoxi Lu several weeks ago!!!We (me and my fiancee), as foreigners, thought that these kinds of unpleasant things can happen with us, because everybody is so lovely and friendly here.Actually, we’ve been stolen a bag in Barcelona with almost all those things like Wendy did just before we coming here..So, robbery exists everywhere, those bad people are the same among countries!!!Just be careful!!!
i reached shanghai a month ago and my phone was pick-pocketed in less than a week… and the phone is not available in china. it made me so depressed i cried for 2 days. now i am using a dual sim card phone i bought from the mobile phone mall near shanghai railway station.
I remember an experience my dad had in Shenzhen. He was staying on the 2nd floor of an old-ish apartment building, not particularly posh.
One night, when it was cold and rainy, he was wrapped up in bed with a quilt (winter night). A thief somehow managed to bend the security bars around the balcony and enter the apartment, but my dad failed to notice. He even went into the same room, where my dad had his head under the quilt. Then, he went out by the front door.
Fortunately, all that was lost were 2 old handphones and some cash