Tourists Beware: Summer in Paris is prime-time
for pickpockets
PARIS -- Christine Gudorf's vacation in France was ruined
just minutes after it began.
Fifteen minutes after her train arrived in Paris, Gudorf,
52, a professor from Miami Beach, Fla., felt a tap on her shoulder.
It was a man asking her if she needed a taxi. After she was
finally able to convince the man she didn't need his services,
she realized one of her bags was gone.
"It was just going to be a weekend in Normandy. Now I
don't even know if we're going to make it there," said Gudorf,
near tears as she filled out forms at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
Among other things, she had been robbed of her passport
and a laptop computer containing all her work, including two
chapters of a book she was writing.
Tourists such as Gudorf -- luggage-laden and disoriented
-- are conspicuous targets for gangs of thieves operating in
train stations and around tourist attractions in the French
capital, embassy officials say. And this summer, the thieves
have been operating with greater frequency than before.
Kathleen Riley, head of the American services section
at the U.S. Embassy, said the number of American tourists reporting
stolen passports in France between May and July has risen 35
per cent since last year.
Some summer days, weary officials report opening the passport
replacement office in the morning to find 40 Americans camped
outside the consulate.
Kevin O'Hara, 48, a physician from Pittsburgh, was waiting
in the same line as Gudorf, along with his wife and three daughters.
All of their passports, as well as credit cards, cash and return
tickets to the United States, had been stolen as they lingered
at a scenic lookout, O'Hara said.
Anne Maki, 31, an architect from Minneapolis, had lost
her passport the day before to a pickpocket on her train to
Paris from the airport. And Mike Cordera, 37, a lawyer from
Glen Ridge, N.J., had his stolen after he put his luggage in
a compartment on a train from Paris to Tours.
Police do not keep statistics on theft specifically involving
tourists. But crime in general is on the rise in Paris. Police
reported 160,330 crimes in the first half of the year, up 7.2
per cent from the same period in 2000. Violent thefts rose 42
per cent, and subway crime rose 25 per cent.
According to the French Interior Ministry, there has been
a 9.8 per cent increase in thefts in the country overall since
the beginning of the year.
Americans are not the only targets -- newspapers in countries
from China to Britain have printed articles cautioning tourists
against Paris pickpockets, France's Le Monde newspaper reported.
Subway lines -- especially the routes leading to Paris
airports -- are popular hangouts for pickpockets, and tourists
should also be very careful at landmarks such as Notre Dame
and the Louvre Museum, police say.
"In the past several weeks, the area surrounding the Mona
Lisa has become a centre for pickpocketing," Thierry Butet,
who heads the police in Paris' central district, told Le Monde.
In Paris, loudspeakers in major train and subway stations
blare messages in French and English, exhorting passengers to
be aware of the thieves in their midst. A sign at the entrance
to the Louvre tells visitors to keep an eye on their belongings.
Most tourists, however, don't really take those warnings
to heart.
"I read some warnings that this could happen, but I never
thought I would be part of it," Gudorf said.
