For you residents of Spain, how is the crime in your area? How common is it in your area for people's houses to be broken into? For people to be assaulted and/or mugged?
I'd just like to get a general idea of how things are. I know (firsthand) that people are sometimes pickpocketed in Madrid.
I hate to bring up such a depressing subject, but I'd really like a general idea.
Oh, and even though I was pickpocketed in Madrid, I still love it there. :l:

Put it this way, most of the apartment blocks & houses around here have high fencing around, security on the door, cameras etc. It's not that it's serious crime but petty thieving and such like. We've had our garage raided a few times (no security guard at night!), cars broken into, bikes nicked....If it's not chained down they'll take it!!

A couple of weeks ago on the Metro, I did observe a young woman with a pair of jeans draped over her arm (a dead give-away) attempt to flinch a wallet from a woman's purse but she was promptly stopped by the second woman's friend who violently pushed the pickpocket aside and harangued her for several minutes until the pickpocket left the train.

Oddly, the expression on the pickpocket never once changed. She never feigned innocence or outrage and didn't flinch at the verbal abuse.

- He that first cries out stop thief, is often he that has stolen the treasure.
William Congreve

The pickpocketers usually go for 'turistas'. that's why u can usually find them in the centre and around museums etc.....

madrid has always been a fairly safe city. But lately the crime rate has gone up a bit. but for me it is still the safest city in Europe.

salu2,
serge

I still love Madrid and Spain in general, but I have to say that this has also been the place where my family and I have been most affected by crime in the shortest period of time.

My parents were here for a three-week visit (that also included about ten days in Paris and Italy). We went to Barcelona this last weekend. At the Barcelona Sants station, coming in from the airport, my senior citizen mother suffered a pickpocket attempt. I had turned away for a second, when I turned back, I saw a blonde caucasian woman (about 35 years old, shoulder length hair in a pony tail, thin, with a light colored jacket draped over her crooked forearm) pressing up against my mother and her handbag. I jumped at the woman, as did my father, and she pulled back. We saw that my mother's handbag had one of the zippers unzipped (luckily, she didn't have anything more valuable than a lipstick in that compartment). Basically, in state of shock, we let the woman go when it looked as if she hadn't gotten anything, and she jumped back on the train as it was pulling out.

A couple of days later, back in Madrid, my parents were at the courtyard in front of the Reina Sofia museum. They dropped their guard for one moment and didn't keep an eye on the non-descript black canvas bag in which they were carrying a video camera, and -- poof!-- it was gone.

Now, of course, they could always have been more careful, but it does say something about the environment here in Spain when one can't even let down one's guard for a single moment.

My parents and I were walking to El Prado on a Sunday morning when someone came out of a hotel (how I wish I could remember the name) and said he was from the Lebanon and asked my 80 yr old father if he would show him what a euro note looked like!! This guy actually took his wallet out to show us his dollars and Lebanese money! My father immediately reached towards the pocket his wallet was in. I saw what I presumed was this guys accomplice leave the hotel doorway with a backpack on and wander off up the street. I told the Lebanese to go back into his hotel and ask reception to show him what euros looked like, and he was really quite agressive towards me. My parents thought I was being really rude to a "kind and friendly foreigner", but thank goodness I was with them, and had already made them leave everything of importance in their hotel room. I dread to think what would have happened if I had not been with them, but it was the only time we had any hassle.

during the year i was there, 98% of my friends were robbed at some point, sometimes more than once. one actually lived on the tenth floor, which was the last floor, of a beautiful building. a man broke in through the patio doors and stole quite a few electronic items. this friend inparticular was also pickpocketed on the metro and had her purse stolen when we were in a bar one night. many of my friends all had the same experience-they weren't paying attention and someone slipped their hand in the purse, backpack, etc. even while waiting in line at zara's! the nerve. oh, just a word to the wise...if anyone plans on being in sol during new years, watch it, especially if you've had a few sodas because two friends were pickpocted for a couple hundred euros. (why they were carrying it, i don't know) i was the lucky one-never had a bad experience while i was there.

My advice: watch out for the sound of a "jogger" behind you. (method used to snatch my purse in the Retiro)

Or, anyone following you as you walk down a sloped street - they may break into a run (method used to snatch my purse in Lavapi�s)

Also saw the "run and snatch" happen in the Plaza Castilla area, and in the Rastro.

K.

Mermaid, you asked specifically for the residents to speak up...so here goes.

I have been living in Spain now for two and a half years. In this time, I have lived in three distinct areas of the country: Gand�a, Valencia (6 months), El Espinar, Segovia (1.5 years) and Madrid (6 months).

While living in Gand�a (the town, not the beach resort), I was a "reci�n llegada" but not unfamiliar with the Spanish culture/language. I felt completely safe. Everyone minded their own business except for the woman who worked in the bakery of the ground level of our building...she was the town gossip. The only time that I felt insecure was immediately after 9/11 when I was approached by a man on the street who asked me in English if I spoke English. Anyone who knows me personally knows that such a question would be unusal given that I don�t look like your "stereotypical" American/English speaker. The incident made me feel uncomfortable as this guy had broken away from his buddies who were all hanging out on the corner to follow me a bit and ask me that question... at 10 o�clock at night (I was alone, and for the record, never spoke English to anyone in Gand�a). Just as I don�t look like your stereotypical English speaker... he didn�t look like your stereotypical Spanish speaker (Spanish, Latin American or otherwise). Definitely looked middle eastern. Given all the news and exposure regarding 9/11, I was extremely sensitized to the situation.

Living in El Espinar was pretty close to living in heaven except for the smell of cow manure on our line-dried clothes and the 130 km roundtrip commute to work (in Madrid) on a daily basis. There, absolutely nothing happened except when the wind blew...at which a leaf would move. Traffic jams, in a town with just one traffic light that worked only during the school year, meant waiting for the "pastor" to cross the road with his small heard of livestock...be it sheep, cows, etc. Or, it was simply the errant cow that escaped its pasture. Being a small town, everyone looked out for each other, but being Segovia, also minded their own business. (The Segovian personality is much more closed compared to the Valencian personality).

Now we are in Madrid...the mother lode of all Spanish cities. Last month, I was quite surprised, at first, to read in our neighborhood (freebie) newspaper that claimed that the Tetuan district suffered the highest crime rate in all of Madrid during the months of July and August. Surprised, because I have never experienced any problems here in this very multicultural neighborhood. I frequent the same bars and stores...people have gotten to know me, etc. Granted, this report was based upon police logs where officers were dispatched to the scene of the crime. In many instances, these crimes were related to public disturbance, botellones largely mounted by some Latin American residents of the neighborhood (there is a high level of immigrants in our district, particularly Latin American/Ecuadorian), revenge acts (ajustes de cuenta), etc. None reported had to do with violent crimes or aggressive break-ins of people�s homes. Not reported were incidents of petty crime, if there were any, since many times such acts go unreported. So, I took that newspaper article that with a grain of salt knowing full well that the amount of petty crime that occurs in the center of the city in the tourist districts is higher in one day than all of Tetuan in two months.

I am convinced that petty crime has more to do with luck and how you carry yourself than anything else. Apart from living here now, I also spent a year here (6 months in Madrid and 6 in Valencia) while studying in the university (some 16 years ago ) and over the years, prior to residing here, have also traveled to Spain to be a tourist (sleeping on trains, park benches, in hostals, in the north, in the south and the east of Spain) no fewer than 15 times. To put it bluntly, I know of what I speak. And never, knock on wood, have I experienced any problems related to crime.

I come from the metropolitan Philadelphia area in the States. The 4th (or 5th it fluctuates yearly) largest city in the country, and not nearly as large as Madrid. I have lived in the city of Philadelphia itself both in center city as well as West Philadelphia (where the Prince of Bel Air -- Will Smith-- was born and raised ). It is unthinkable to act as carefree there, as I do here, in Madrid. It would be interesting to know how many of the people who have suffered petty crime here in Madrid actually live in large cities (relative to the size of Madrid) vs small towns or suburbs. My parents also live in metropolitan Philadelphia...but are suburbanites through and through, and proud of it! I would be hard pressed to let them roam the streets of Madrid by themselves as they just don�t have the street saavy that those of us who have lived in big cities have. They would just stick out like sore thumbs! But I would not worry about them being a victim of a petty crime involving a gun which is all too common in the larger cities in the good old USA.

I think that Spain, specifically Madrid, gets a bad rap by the Americans who come to visit it as a crime ridden city. But many fail to take in account their personal experiences of being in big cities in the States. Let�s face it, as Tonytorero might say, we ain�t in Kansas City anymore (don�t let that "city" word throw you off!) :jeje: :jeje:

Not to turn this thread political or anything (I know how much jer hates that), but have you seen Bowling for Columbine yet? If that doesn�t speak volumes about the culture in the U.S., particularly gun culture, I don�t know what does.

But as Mermaid said, not to make the thread depressing or anything...I just think it�s good to have a dose of reality and to look at things in perspective.

Ok, I am ending my book now. :jeje: Just wanted to share my opinion on the topic and to help put things in perspective. I, too, love Madrid (and Barcelona for that matter), just as I love my Philadelphia...for many the same and just as many different reasons. Crime, whether we want to accept it or not, has always been a social problem whenever and wherever there are large populations of people involved.

I'm with Chica here: Madrid is, in general, very safe. The two purse-snatching incidents I mention above are the only problems I've had in the 7 years I've been here (always in Madrid). And, in the first case (in the Retiro) I was letting my mind wander - not watching or enjoying my beautiful surroundings (or the fellow follwing me). And in the second case (Lavapi�s), it was 3 am and I was well past tipsy.

On the other hand, I have witnessed quite a few pick-pocketing attempts... in the metro, in bars, in any sort of crowd... The "nice" thing about Madrid, though, is that so long as you're smart with your purse or wallet, you have no reason to worry about anything else. Violent robberies are very very very rare.

It's also nice, here, that people ARE NOT PARANOID about these things. Pickpocketers are despised, and cursed, and pushed out of metro trains, but no one changes their daily habits out of fear of crime.

k.

Kudos Chica!!! A truly insightful account

Well, another resident checking in.

I have been living & loving Madrid for almost 8 years and have travelled EXTENSIVELY throughout Spain, not ONCE had I personally been robbed...

... until a few months ago when I was helping "el Mufino" move a mattress to his new pad with my car. His place was in Latina (heart of THE RASTRO) and as I was waiting for him to come back down form his apt., a Chinese guy came out of a store and began asking me about my car (pretty new at the time). I thought nothing of it and to this day am unsure if he was distracting me or just making small-talk. Well, when Mufino came back down and we got in the car, I realized that my backpack was missing. It had been on the floor of the back seat of my car so the thief must have reached into the car and lifted it. The backpack had nothing of value in it and it was a very busy Rastro Sunday.

I totally blame myself (for helping el Mufino :jeje: ) and think that most who are robbed in this way are part (or mostly) to blame as well.

Sorry but I can't feel bad for those who put bags on the ground next to phone booths as they make calls in the Puerta del Sol, or who leave their wallets on the table of an outdoor eatery in the Plaza Mayor as they get up to use the restroom.

Last story I heard was from a youth hostel here. A backpacker was staying at the hostel in a shared room with 5 others. Said backpaker left 300 Euros in CASH in a his backpack and left it on the bed when he went to shower.

Don't need to tell you the money was gone when he returned

Miliion stories in the naked city so don't get snagged "en cueros"

Saludos,
jer...

In the year I lived in Madrid and the three visits since, I have, knock on wood, never been victimized by crime. From what I observed, anything but petty street crime and auto theft was pretty rare.

I agree with Chica that much of avoiding it is luck and how you carry yourself. In Madrid and elsewhere throughout the world, tourists are targeted by thieves because they are often fatigued, distracted, and unfamiliar with their surroundings.

I think that for its size, Madrid is a remarkably safe city.

I would have to agree with the assessment that it does depend on how you carry yourself, whether or not you'll be a target of the evil criminals. The unfortunate thing that I did notice was that those who were robbed (some multiple times) tended to look like what is perceived as a typical American (blond, blue eyed, etc.) But as was mentioned before, when you leave your bags unattended, they do seem to grow legs quickly and then get the hell out of dodge.

I have had a couple of small incidents in the metro, but never have lost anything of value. Either there has been nothing of value where they're trying to pickpocket, or I've caught them in the act.

I have typically been of the opinion that pickpocketing can be prevented, if not at least made less likely. Too many people fail to think carefully about where they are putting their money, what they are carrying with them, and how they are carrying it.

I never have more than 100 euros in cash with me at any one time, and it is distributed in different places so that it would be very unlikely I'd lose it all at once. I also try to carry bags that don't scream "expensive camera inside!" Don't even get me started on people who wear money belts or neck pouches on the outside of their clothing.

I get really frustrated when people say how Madrid is dangerous and they'd never go there or go back again for fear of their life. Unfortunately, if you look at many travel message boards, everyone who gets robbed posts about it while everyone else doesn't. If every single person who never had any kind of incident happen to them posted about it, I think we'd see how the VAST majority of people come away pretty much unscathed.

Anne

Touch� Que Pasa!