South America - Quito, robbery at airport - organised gang

sligogringo

Hi folks,

Anyone travelling to Quito in South America?

My mates arrived there and were robbed at the airport by an organised gang. They were being watched as soon as they got through arrivals, one friend went to the toilet while the other watched the bags, he was approached by a well dressed gentleman who distracted him with a map and some tourist advice - by the time he realised he had been robbed it was too late.

This sort of scam could happen in any country, I just thought that I would post a copy of their experience here so others could be aware of it.

"We were not physically hurt, we did not lose our passports, and all the material things will be replaced, but our morale was very low for a good time. Apparently it’s a gang that operates in the Quito Airport, and the robbery to tourists is very frequent, so I’ll share our experience to prevent others from being caught out. We had just exited Baggage Reclaim and we went into the the Official Tourism Office to get maps and info. Before exiting into the street I went to the bathroom while Tony kept our 4 bags. A man dressed in a suit approached him in a friendly way to show him a map and offer tourist services. After a short chat with him, Tony declined and the non-persistent man left. As we would see later in the CCTV cameras, 10 seconds later Tony realized one of our bags was gone. He debated between leaving the remaining three bags and chasing him or securing the rest of our bags, until he went after them with all the bags. He tried to get help from a policeman who just ignored him and walked away, and when finally the numerous airport security staff showed up it was too late. The most important things we lost were a laptop, 2 ipods, new pro camera, cellphone, and some of our bank cards and ID’s. It was not a violent crime so we were fortunate in that. "