Getting your phone stolen is something bad in general, but what to do if that happens during traveling? On the phone you usually have all important things. It makes your life easier, you kind of rely on it a little bit, which is even worse during traveling.
What are the first steps after it happens?
- Realize that your phone is stolen and try to not freak out.
- You can always try to track it, but it also can be dangerous, making it to people stealing your phone. If the people are professionals, maybe more bad things can happen to you! You could get worse cases with police to the location, if it’s possible to spot a signal from your phone.
- Try to get a trusted person, with which phone, you are able to change important passwords. For example for your email, or payment functions.
- When you are traveling alone, then try to contact something important in your life. They would be happy to help you during this process.
- Going to the police, to report that your phone is stolen. The chance that they find is. is low, but not zero.
- Getting a new phone, or using a different device, to have important things close to you.
- Also helpful, find out how you can do everything in the city without a phone! Writing things on paper can help.
What happened to me?
After I was visiting a concert in Mexico City, my phone was stolen out of my pocket. On the phone was everything, my payment methods, my 10.000 photos and videos from travels. Just everything you can think of.
It was bad, because of two things, I didn’t feel safe in the city anymore. Also I didn’t know where to go. Luckily I was not alone, so we figured out the second issue at least.
When I was at my host, I was contacting my family and trying to fix my things. I was changing passwords for all important things and also wanted to block my credit card from my phone. They did block the excess, but in general. I was not able to use my credit card anymore. The card is a prepaid card anyway, so it was not connected to my bank.
Paypal for example, was kind of just connected to the app, so I am still not having my paypal back to normal.
I was able to send my friend in the city some money. He was able to buy a new phone for me. Which was good for me, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to actually buy a new phone quickly.
How to prevent it from even happening?
It is even with more security reasons possible that your phone get stolen, but it can reduce it.
- When having the phone in your pocket, just try to have your hand touching it, when being in a big crowd of people.
- You can wear pants underneath your pants, where you are putting your wallet and phone in.
- Don’t look too much on your phone, when having unknown people around you, especially in the darkness.
- Having a money belt, where you can put your phone in.
- If you don’t need your phone, don’t bring it.
Preventions, which you can do, before it is stolen, to make things easier?
Even if your phone is getting stolen, there are some things which you can do, just to make things easier after.
- Save all of your important pictures beforehand. When using android phones, in google pictures, or when using apple, to save it in your cloud.
- If you have multiple devices, have the important apps on all, to still have access to them, in case of a robbery.
- Try to learn the ways, how to get to the place you are staying. It is important, to not be completely lost. Also it is better to know the region you are in, to not need to use your phone for directions so often.
- Having the contact information of important people, to be able to contact them, even without you having your phone. Also have the number and address from your embassy, in case, other things are also gone!
Summary
Getting something stolen is always bad. A phone is probably during traveling one of the worse things, the worst is your passport for sure.
But you can do some things, before that is happening, to make it at the end not be as bad, as it would be without personal precautions.
You might think, “that won’t happen to me, I am always careful!” I was thinking the same, because my phone was never stolen, it happened after visiting 75 countries. So it can happen to everyone and everywhere, besides probably North Korea.
Take care of you and try to stay safe in general, don’t trust everyone on the street and try to not get into huge crowds of people.
When having some extra tips for people, having questions, or want to share your story, I would love to read it in the comments. By clicking on the Amazon link, mentioned in the article and buying something, I am getting a little percentage from Amazon. This way, you are getting a good deal and supporting me as well.
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