My Brush with Pickpockets and Thieves in Spain

Thai tourist's selfie captures London pickpockets stealing her purse (YouTube link)

My personal experiences with pickpockets and thieves in Barcelona and Madrid:

Lost my backpack at Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar

On that day, as I left Barcelona to join a tour of other cities, I carried all my belongings: a carry-on suitcase and a backpack. I sat down on the last row of a church bench and left my luggage and backpack alongside it. Then I began to photograph the church's ceilings. A few minutes later, I realized that my backpack had mysteriously vanished.

I noticed something suspicious when I approached the church. An old man was walking alongside me, and he kept nervously looking up and down. When I sat down on a bench, he sat down next to me on the left, even though my luggage and backpack were on my right. This man appeared to be a "distractor" for a gang of thieves. The purpose of a distractor is to distract you so that his partners can steal from you without your notice.

After I lost my backpack, I noticed an old woman dressed in a long robe sitting on a stool in front of the church. She matched the description of a thief on YouTube. Thieves often wear long robes to hide stolen items between their legs.

Harassed by a couple at Sabatini Gardens in Madrid

While I was in a deserted location, a couple approached me and told me that there was something dirty on my clothes. I initially thought it was bird droppings, so I stopped to check. As soon as I did, the couple reached me and showed me the dirty spots on my clothes. To my surprise, I saw green liquid spread all over my backpack. The couple kindly offered to help me clean it up with toilet paper.

But the story didn't end there. The liquid suddenly appeared all over my body: on my pants, my jacket, and even my backpack. The couple kept helping me clean it up, with the woman working on my right side and the man working on my left. It was at this point that I became suspicious, especially when the man placed his hands close to my anti-theft travel bag.

Suddenly, the couple decided to walk away, leaving me with more toilet paper to clean up. I realized that this couple was actually a team of pickpockets. They must have spread the green liquid on my clothes from their sleeves, then pretended to help me clean it up so they could get close to my bag.

There were two things that made me suspicious:

1. How did they happen to have so much toilet paper with them?
2. The green liquid spread to me more and more after they tried to help me clean up.