Thetownend.com

Went to Barcelona for the weekend with my dad, caught the barcelona espanyol match 1-2 !!  cracking night, however the city is dodgy as fuck. Its a beautiful place but theres some right fucking mampy people there.

Sat night my dad was leaving a bar when he had an attempting mugging on him, my dad went for the biggest bloke of 4 and they all legged it. They obviously thought he wouldnt put up a fight.

Later that night two blokes tried to mug me, one of them tried to push me to the floor and i twatted him. they also ran off.

Following day had a lovely day out to the carnival at sitges. On the metro on the way back i clocked a couple pickpocketing my dads wallet, i crossed the carriage and asked him to check his pockets, when he said his wallet had gone he threatend to break the blokes arm, the girl immediately said she had found his wallet on the floor.

Its a fucking shame because its a lush city but from the stories i have heard over the last few days this is a pretty common problem.

Three incidents!?! Lordy. When I went it was pretty quiet for a popular tourist city - so was lucky enough not to get mugged etc...

Good work on your crime fighting escapades though.

I thought that Barcelona was beautiful city, just a shame that the inhabitants where a bunch of wankers.

Yep, my old man's friend had his wallet taken out of his pocket on the last day in Barcelona. He gave chase but there was 2 of them and they split. Luckily he picked the right one and the thief took out the cash (about 300 Euro) and threw the wallet away. He wasn't too bothered about the cash, just was pretty relieved to get his cards back.

Going on a stag doo there at the end of June. Great place Barcelona - went last year and didn't suffer any pickpocket problems but will definately be more concious when I go over.

Oh and Mex, that was the first time Barca had lost to Espanyol in 21 years (I assume at the Nou Camp) according to BBC News 24.

were you wearing gold coats or something?!

In 97, when I was in Barcelona my mate had his wallet pick pocketed too.  Like you say it's a shame as it's one of the best cities in Europe, but the a-holes let the place down badly.

As they do in any large city or town!

Barca does seem to have a high proportion of thieving scumbags tho.  My mate got robbed out there when we went out there last year and you find most people either have been mugged or know someone thats been mugged out there.

its little kids nicking stuff too!  like 7/8 year olds

actually first time espanyol have won at nou camp in 27 years!

match was pretty shit to be fair, lots of diving and typical local derby. however was brilliant atmosphere even with no away fans.

Not really, I've spent a lot of time in Bath, Newcastle Edinburgh, London even - not too mention Prague, Budapest, Paris, Amsterdam - and the Barcelona pick pockets are a different breed to anything I've experience anywhere else - although Rome seems to have a bit of a problem too.

I felt safer in Barcelona than in Paris, the metro is a scary place!  Wouldn't walk home alone in Swindon either on a weekend!

barcelona does seem to be different gravy from anything i have experienced. there seems to be a total acceptance to the fact its going on. no one batted an eyelid when i smacked the bloke, and the incident on the metro no one paid any attention.

fucking basques.

Knew Barca could be a bit dodgy, but three incidents in one weekend is taking the piss.

Glad to hear you and your dad sorted them with your crime fighting. How old is he, is he hard as fuck or are Spanish muggers a bit shit?

Behind the façade of this innocent looking nightclub...  

you have no excuse its the fucking afternoon in india.

When me and some mates went over for a Stag we encountered no pick-pockets, but then we were a group of lads. I even got lost in the City one night, alone at about 4am, with my t-shirt torn to shreds. I spoke some fluent Englispanitalian to the few people around and got home unscathed, with video camera, in about 2 hours. It's pretty obvious that it goes on though.

The only thing i saw a lot of in the City was nude men... I saw at least 3 completely naked blokes walking around bold as brass, on separate occassions, albeit by the beach, but still, put the mouse back in the house kids.

I got pickpocketted by a prostitute... she managed to get an expired metro ticket and 3 pub flyers. I taunted her afterwards and she wasn't happy.

Thats what you get for going with prozzies.

I had no idea about Barce being so rough, I've been twice with no probs at all.

well we were in las ramblas at 3 in  the morning half cut so i suppose we were sitting targets.

Mexico Red shows off his anti-pickpocket device from the comfort of his hotel room:

[url width=640 height=512]http://chad.thompson2.googlepages.com/63-fannypack.JPG/63-fannypack-full.jpg[/url]

the pickpocket looked remarkably like rob t.

me too, both times.

I did get fleeced for a 9 euro beer.

I was amazed by the general lack of security/policing/whatever within the Barcelona metro.

When i went to Barcelona a man was getting on the metro and shouted that some man had just mugged him and no one seemed bothered at all, everyone says if you look like a tourist they'll go straight for you so try to walk around like you know where you're going and don't have a map out etc and you're less likely to get mugged, but it does seem to just happen regularly and no one seems to care.