Rocky rides on the Swiss railway

After a gruelling 7 ½ hour train ride, my vigilance was ebbing as the end of my journey drew nearer.

Last Saturday, while fighting with the crowd for a seat on the late afternoon train from Bern to Fribourg, disaster struck.....

Three or four minutes into the journey, I realised my handbag zipper was open. Of course, my purse was missing, as I quickly rifled through the meagre contents of my handbag – purposely emptied for my trip - acutely aware, having been robbed twice before, of this feeling of “déjà vu”.

Those two friendly little girls, so keen to help me put my heavy rucksack onto the luggage rack, were also keen to help themselves at the same time.... The tactics were the same. With a chilling thoroughness, they know how to arrest your attention for just a second – usually by gazing into your eyes and blocking your path in the aisle – while busy fingers unzip your handbag and fish out your purse with lightning speed.

As bad luck would have it, having emptied most of my cards from my purse, for an occasion such as this, I had overlooked one card – my bank cash card, which was now in the hands of the thieves, together with a small amount of cash.

That is the annoying thing about a robbery – the heavy bureaucratic procedure of having to recuperate your credit cards and ID documents....

A quick phone call to “Card-Stop” blocks your bank account, but then you need to catch a policeman to give you the precious piece of paper to re-open the bank account. In Fribourg on a late Saturday afternoon, this is easier said than done. Police, knocking off work at 4.30pm are not willing to sit down and go through all the paperwork for a silly little theft of a lost bank card....

The moral of the story............................?? I'll let you fill in the gaps!

Flying Kiwi

Fribourg

November 2012

footnote: today, when reporting a theft of a wallet to the police in Fribourg, one must pay for the privilege!