Most of my stories of travel, or even the stories I hear about other people are good stories related to backpacking which, let's face it, is the least secure method of travel for a reason: You are spending significantly less money than the people that pay for the safe package tours. You are also getting a much more real experience of the areas you are in.
I encountered mostly wonderful tales from other people and I have only been ripped off a handful of times that I am aware of in my more than 2 decades of travel, but I think this is because I take a great deal of precaution whenever I am traveling and I also adhere to the rule of "if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably because it isn't true."
I don't hear about many stories of people being robbed in the backpacking community because of the fact that we are a cautious bunch... some of us to the point of being overly cautious untrusting assholes. Some people take it too far but then we have the other end of the spectrum of people being a bit too trusting and paying the price for it. It doesn't help when the person is also a traveler whose only desire in their travels appears to be getting drunk and doing drugs though, and that is exactly the kind of person the man that I am featuring in this writeup was.
His name was Frank and I met him in Colombia. He just happened to be walking around the same place that I was where I was having a coffee and he walked and said hello and we talked for a bit and then I asked him to come join me. He was considerably older than I was at the time, I would say around 30 years older. He had been traveling for a while so someone like this is a really good person to get good information from that no online resource is going to give you. He was a treasure trove of information but all of his stories seemed to include getting drunk, doing drugs, or taking advantage of the red light districts that exist in most of the world. Despite these rather repetitive plot-points in his stories, I still enjoyed talking to him.
As we parted ways it was all good and on my walk back to my guesthouse Frank invited me into a bar that he says was his "regular." It was 11 o'clock in the morning so I declined but we did meet up again at the same cafe about a week later. This time Frank was in as high of spirits as he was the last time we met and there was a good reason why: His guesthouse room had been cleared out of all valuables in one night while he was passed out drunk in it.
Guesthouses are great because they have things like shared kitchens and laundry facilities, a communal area where it is easy to meet other travelers, and they are much cheaper than staying at hotels. One thing they are definitely lacking in though is security. In many places, such as the place he was staying, there are no night guards, there are no or poorly-functioning CCTV, and room locks are the type that you would find on the interior of your college apartment. Also, the front gate tends to be just a padlock that the residents have a key to and it is up to them to remember to lock it when the come and go.
In Frank's situation, the place in question did have CCTV but because he was so drunk, by the time he woke up in the afternoon the thief, who wore a hat in the footage and was unidentifiable, was long gone. Basically, the guy in the video can be seen walking into the door that Frank himself had left unlocked when he stumbled in, and then the guy proceeded to go to every single guestroom door and simply try the doorknob. If it was unlocked, he would go in and steal. Upon reviewing the footage there was an instance where the inhabitant woke up and there was an exchange between the two guys. The person with the hat that was the thief simply told the guy that he mistook his room for his own, apologized, and you can see them shake hands afterwards. Later, the same guy in the hat would go upstairs and proceed to check all of the other doors as well. When he got to Frank's room, the door was unlocked.
This thief was clearly a seasoned individual as far as this is concerned because the fact that Frank was asleep inside the room must not have bothered him at all. There are not CCTV's in the room so we can't know exactly what went down in there but by the time Frank woke up, hungover and groggy, he quickly started to notice that his laptop, his tablet, his phone, and his wallet were all gone. Thankfully his passport was left behind because that could have been a whole world of additional problems for him.
Now I am not telling anyone to not have fun or to not get drunk when they are traveling or even how to live your life.. but in Frank's situation even Frank knows that this mishap is primarily his fault. Also, not only did he get robbed but because he left the front gate unlocked he basically endangered everyone else in the building as well. They were quite upset with him but still begrudgingly helped him to get some money by letting him use the phone and computers to contact his bank in his home country. They were not really happy about letting Frank stay there anymore but what else were they going to do? Kick him out on the street? I don't know how much you know about Colombia but they aren't overly concerned about petty crime committed against backpackers... it's up to you to look after your own safety.
In Frank's case it was entirely his fault but for others, such at the other people that were staying at Frank's guesthouse, they could have been victims as well because of his drunken idiocy. There are also situations I have heard of such as a guesthouse that I was staying at in Malaysia, where the room locks were very poor to the point where my room key opened ALL of the rooms in the guesthouse. I'm pretty sure the owners were aware of this too because when I found this out I asked another guest to try to open my door with their key and sure enough, it worked as well! There are also more advanced thieves out there that know how to jimmy open doors and windows without keys.
For the door at least, there is a product that I always travel with and it costs less than $10
Place this simple product in front of the door after you have closed it for the night and if anyone opens the door, either because of a faulty lock or because they have the keys, a very loud alarm will go off. There are no thieves that are going to continue to pursue getting into your room once an alarm has gone off and trust me, this alarm is not something you are going to be able to sleep through regardless of how drunk you are. It is highly sensitive and I have had the same one for 8 years and it still works. I rest easy knowing that no one is going to get in my room while I am in it.
I'm not endorsing a particular product but you can just search "door stop alarm" and dozens of options will pop up.
I think this is a worthwhile product to have because in developing countries, crimes of this sort don't get solved... I don't think the police really even investigate it, they will just fill out a form for you to submit to your travel insurance and then they are done with you.
Backpacking is a wonderful experience, but it can quickly go bad if you are a fool and don't protect yourself. Get out there an enjoy the world but don't end up like Frank! Be smart!