Posted on 09/01/2022 1:12:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Travelling is all fun and games until someone sneaks up behind you and steals your personal belongings.
One Singaporean, who goes by the username Eclair_travels on TikTok, experienced this firsthand while holidaying in Paris, a city notorious for its pickpockets.
However, he ended up luckier than most victims.
In a TikTok video uploaded on Thursday (Sept 1), he shared how the car keys belonging to his Lexus got stolen while he was taking a photo of a building in the city of love.
Eclair_travels only realised his backpack was unzipped and the keys were missing after some nine minutes, taken by quite an expert pickpocket.
Making full use of the AirTag, a tracking device that was attached to his keys, he was able to track its location.
To his surprise, he found that his "keys [were] on the move" as he tracked the pickpocket's movements via his phone.
"[The pickpocket] was probably beeping everywhere to find and rob my car," he theorised.
However, here comes the plot twist — this TikToker's car was safely parked in Singapore, not in France.
He got lucky In hopes of getting some help, he went to a nearby police station but unfortunately, it was closed on that particular day.
In the comments thread, he also told a netizen that he approached some policemen patrolling the streets but he said that they "pretended they didn't comprehend what [he] was saying".
Eclair_travels said he also searched the entire Tuileries Garden for his keys, suspecting that it had been thrown into a drain, but to no avail.
He was on the verge of giving up but after taking a break to enjoy some tea from hotel Le Meurice, he make a last-ditch attempt to find his keys and managed to locate them at the bottom of a rubbish bin nearby with the help of the AirTag.
In his video, Eclair_travels said that he suspected that the thief was unable to find the car and threw the keys away.
"Saved me a thousand plus dollars to replace and three to four days of servicing and pairing," he wrote gratefully in the captions, referring to the cost of replacing those car keys.
So, why did he bring his car keys overseas with him, one netizen asked.
Eclair_travels explained that he had simply forgotten to remove it from his backpack before flying to Paris.
Others said it was "lucky" that the pickpocket had not removed the AirTag from the car keys while another netizen said that Eclair_travels shouldn't be surprised about getting pickpocketed as "it's Paris".
Another netizen advised Eclair_travels to always carry his bag in front of him.
Sadly, however, not all theft victims are as lucky as him.
Just a few days ago, nightclub DJ and influencer Peggy Heng shared that she and her husband's Airbnb villa was burgled while in Ibiza and among the items stolen from them were two newly-purchased Rolex watches that cost a grand total of $42,000.
While the couple had managed to track down the burglars with the AirTags in their luggage, they were, unfortunately, unable to retrieve the valuables.
In a separate incident last year, a mother and daughter travelling in Italy had $15,000 worth of new designer goods stolen from their tour bus.
They shared that despite getting travel insurance, it was not enough to claim back the true amount of money they lost.
The only time pick-pocketed was in Paris, they got my passport took out my emergency fund (in the event I was pick-pocketed) took the 50 euros out and put the passport back into my pocket.
We were in Rome some years ago, seated on a train. I was seated on the aisle and witnessed a guy over my right shoulder, standing in the aisle, working on pickpocketing the guy standing to my right front.
I was waiting for the pickpocket to get a little further along before grabbing his wrist and twisting hard behind him, but he realized I was onto his game and stopped.
I was wearing cargo shorts with the flaps buttoned for exactly this reason. Didn’t care about the (lack of) fashion statement.
Yep, cargo shorts with Velcro snaps and inside the pocket a zipper protecting the pocket even more.
Throw this onto the piles of why I should not visit France.
Never been to paris, except in vegas
I had to punch a mime in the face for putting his hand where it should not have been
mimes are not always quiet
A traveling tip from my father paid off!
My actual wallet and passport were in my front, inside pocket.
Reading this makes me want to go to Paris and rig a can of bear spray in my daypack to fire out the opening when unzipped. That would be fun. But somehow I imagine euroweenies would treat me like an active shooter over it.
$15,000 worth of new designer goods
Dang.
I don't know what an AirTag costs, but I'll bet if I buy one, it will be the most expensive thing I own.
I'll have to buy another AirTag to protect my AirTag.
I wish everybody in Paris were mimes. French makes my ears bleed. Its like they have a different word for everything
Many American speakers of French have also had this experience. They are language snobs. I had a moment of schadenfreude when two French tourists in Italy asked me for help—LOL! They understood me just fine.
No Velco, these were old school with buttons! Two per pocket.
I was in Grande Arch de la Defense when the RER train bolted to a stop, and an announcement came on. All I got was they were on strike! I still had a few miles to go out west to where I was staying. I saw three policemen and went up to them and asked in my best French how to get to Visinet. He answered in perfect English, with no accent. “Well, for you you need go to....” We both started laughing and he gave me excellent directions to the bus, and where to transfer, with the bus numbers. You can get excellent help. or jerks, or everything between.
Now thats funny! Funnier yet if the “money” was gay porn pics.
$25 a tag
There are parts of Houston which I avoid like the plague and you want me to go to Paris? Are you insane? ;-)
As a once world-traveler years ago, I now would never venture outside of the good ol’ U.S. of A.
There’s always Paris, Tennessee. I hear they even have a replica of the Eiffel Tower. There is also a city named Paris in Texas, Illinois, Maine, Kentucky, and several other states, but I don’t know about replicas of the Eiffel Tower.
Anyone who uses TicTok is just asking for trouble. IMHO.
Ditto!
My passport expired years ago. I will likely not renew it for the rest of this life. As screwed up as our country can be, it’s still the best place on earth.
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