Travel Tuesday: Dealing with Pickpockets

 
 Have you ever been concerned about pickpockets and thieves while you are out and about in your travels? You should be! More than 400,000 instances of pickpocketing occur EVER DAY (1)! In New York, 3,000 pickpocketing incidents are reported each month, and you know there are more that are not. Internationally, Italy has the highest likelihood of being pickpocketed with 463 mentions per million visitors, followed closely by France and Spain. I've tried different theft deterrents in the past: money belts worn under my pants or a pouch worn under my shirt. While I've never been pickpocketed from these locations, neither is it very practical to get out my ID, cash, or credit card when I need to purchase something. So when I was preparing for my Transatlantic cruise back in January, I wanted to find a better option. I'd been seeing adds for travel purses and I started looking into them. Today, I'd like to share with you what I found and how I've been using it all year!

 The Travel On* bags are really cool! They are intentionally designed for both security, function and aesthetics. Instead of a standard clip, the strap clips have a button you have to push in, twist and slide in order to open them. This way, if you leave your purse* on the back of your chair at a restaurant and loop the strap through it, no one can just lift it off and walk away - I have actually had that happen once! Each of the zipper pulls also have clips that latch onto a secured loop so that one has to seriously fiddle with them to get them open. Once you're used to it, you can manage it just fine, but an unsuspecting thief would likely be foiled. These days, you have to worry not just about physical theft, but also digital. Did you know that your IDs as well as your credit cards have RFID chips in them? These can be read, even from a distance, by special readers that can steal all of the information off them! This purse* has RFID blocking pockets and slots to prevent this digital theft. I also keep my cards and passport in RFID sleeves like these* for extra protection when they are out of my purse. Trust me, $10 is a small price to pay compared to having to replace your ID and credit cards in a foreign country! Another clever and annoying trick pickpockets have is to slice the bottom or side of your bag with a razor blade and slide the contents out while you are distracted with something else. The Travel On purse* has slash resistant stainless-steel mesh body panels that prevent this from happening. Equally, theives are prone to cut the strap on a bag to get away with it, especially if a woman is wearing it across her body to prevent it sliding off her shoulder. The Travel On strap has a stainless-steel cable inside it that foils this strategy.

 In addition to function, the Travel On purse* is practical and, in my estimation, pretty. It's exactly the right size and holds just what I want to bring with me when I'm out and about. I have to be careful not to buy a purse that is too big because I have found that I will fill whatever bag I am carrying and my back and shoulder's do not appreciate that! I really like the cotton-canvas material that actually looks better and better over time and use. 

Here's the Thing: There is no foolproof (or thief proof) solution out there, but this purse by Travel On really decreases your chances of being one of those unfortunate statistics and having your vacation ruined. I highly recommend it both for form and function as well as peace of mind!

* I am an Amazon Associate and when you purchase something through this link I will receive a small bonus. This does not change your price at all, it just helps support what I'm doing on the Salty Zebra Blog.

1. Pickpocketing: Statistics Indicate You May Be at Risk and What to Avoid