The Kitchen Thief

After telling you all about my problems with socks, we had a rather nasty incident at the hostel I was staying in. There was an Australia/New Zealand rugby match and the hostel was screening it in the bar. The bar and the cafe of that hostel are open to the public, and the guest kitchen is just off the cafe eating area. In other words, it's also open to the general public but as a guest you don't think about that.

I was in there, talking to my new dorm mate when suddenly we heard a woman shouting "Give me my wallet back". We both turned to look and saw a woman arguing with a man. Sadly, both of us thought it was a domestic (unfortunatly they aren't rare, generally a woman travelling with a man who spends his evenings in the bar, runs out of money and raids her funds) and turned away. However, another guy (Canadian) saw what was happening more clearly and went to her aid. It turned out that the man was a thief who (with a lady friend) had cased the area, seen her purse unattended (she'd literally turned away for as long as it takes to fill a cup with water) and put it in his pocket. She's turned back just in time to see this hence the "Give me back my wallet".

Outside of the guest kitchen, in the cafe eating area were about twenty rugby players who'd come to eat before watching the match. Once the thief realised he wouldn't be able to get pass them with the woman and the Canadian demanding her wallet back, he turned nasty, threatening her with a plate then shoving her and making a break. The woman had seen him around before and thought he worked at the hostel so went and reported him to reception. That's when she discovered that he had nothing to do with the hostel! However, he was caught on CCTV and the police were called. She had to go to the police station the next day to make a formal statement and, obviously, was very shaken up. The daft thing is that she blamed herself saying that she shouldn't have left her purse unattended for even a minute.

It was obvious from this man's behaviour that this was a deliberate act, choosing a time when the hostel would be full of strangers, knowing that no-one would question his presence in the guest kitchen and waiting until there were only four of us in the kitchen before making his move. I hope the police catch him (although what would happen I don't know).

Overall, it opened my eyes. I had become quite lax about leaving things around in hostels in Australia and New Zealand (but not, in all honesty, in South America) but not now. Now my bag is across my shoulder and my purse tucked away. I've been very lucky so far. Although my bag was slashed in Puno (nothing was taken as I had a kilo of grapes in it) and some socks have gone walkies, nothing like this has happened. Let's hope nothing does.