The Real Hustle Girl in Seville
OK, so I never thought it would happen to me, but it did!
We were in Horno San Buenaventura, a posh cafe/restaurant opposite the cathedral in Seville, enjoying a spot of lunch. In walked a young woman with a clipboard. We had seen these girls on the streets of Seville since arriving, and assumed they were looking for people to support their charity.
We were sitting by the door, and she asked me to sign her petition. It was really weird, because she pushed right up to the table, to show me her clipboard. About a minute after she had left, I realised that she had stolen our iPhone, which we had stupidly left on the table! She had almost certainly used the clipboard as a distraction and whipped the ‘phone away with a spare hand.
The staff pointed us in the direction of the police station. On the way, as luck would have it, we saw said girl in the street, so I took a picture:
Girl with Clipboard
As we were demanding our phone back, a group of three very helpful local men called the police to report the crime and the fact that we now had a ‘photo of the girl. One of the guys even apologised to us on behalf of the people of Seville! He said it was shameful that this kind of thing happened. In the mean time the kid scarpered off, never to be seen again.
The police said they would call us. Needless to say, they didn’t, and we continued to see these girls on the streets for the remainder of stay in Seville.
On speaking to the hotel staff, bar staff, and people in the bars, everyone said that these girls were professional thieves, and that the police don’t bother to do anything about it.
No doubt there are many issues which allow the apparent acceptance of this criminal activity by the authorities. For example, someone told us that apparently these girls are all under 18 years old, and the police struggle to take legal action against them because they are minors.
Although I was really pissed of with the girl, I was more pissed off with myself for leaving a valuable item so vulnerable to theft. The fact was that I was stupid, and the girl was good at what she did. An expensive lesson for me!
It was heartbreaking in a way though. These kids should be in school, and no doubt there is a network of adults taking full advantage of their work.
Have you been hustled on your travels? Please share your advice 
Hi Tom, Hope your well, stumbled across your site, looks good!
We got mugged in Brazil decided to save some pennies and walk to our hostel from the port in Manaus, not a good idea on a Sunday morning! Everywhere was dead and it wasn’t long before we got confronted!
After we realised struggling with them was probably a bad idea we let our bags go and off they ran, after all we had insurance and they could have had a gun/knife.
After we reported it to the police I got driven around with the police and their big guns and shown drugged out street kids in an attempt to identify the muggers! no such luck but was quite an experience!
Hi Tom, I’ve heard these stories repeteadly. Here in Barcelona these youngsters are all over the place, day in day out, asking everyone to sign their “petitions”. The unfolding events are very similar to what you experienced! Unfortunately, it does seem that the police cannot do anything as they are underage.
Tell you what, Kelle, I was as silly as you, left my iPhone somewhere not safe enough and got it stolen on 10th Dec. I can’t believe same thing happened on both of us nearly the same time! Say hi to Tom and I’ll reply this email tonight. Take care!