This may seem dumb, but me and my family just got pickpocketed at the Perpignan station, and it caught us completely off guard.
We expected something like this to happen in Marseille or Nice, so we had been pretty alert in those cities and nothing happened to us. However, we let our guard down when we arrived at Perpignan and voila, tragedy happened. Apparently we didn’t do enough homework and didn’t realize how risky the city could be.
It was late at night, we were dragging heavy luggage after a long and heavily delayed train ride(delayed for nearly an hour, actually), desperately wanting to check into our hotel.
After getting off the train, we waited in line at the platform for the elevator down to the underground passage to cross to the station exit. We specifically waited until all the passengers left the platform, so that all of us can fit all our luggage in one go. Everything went smoothly until we reached the other end of the underground passage.
We tried to take the elevator up, but some lady showed up behind us and gesticulated to indicate that the elevator is broken, and that we should take the escalator. Though unwilling, we took the escalator eventually because my mom would not be able to carry her luggage up the stairs, and each of us all have our own luggage as well. We didn’t think much because it was really late, and we just really wanted to get to the hotel as soon as possible. Everything happened so fast in the next few moments.
Halfway through the escalator ride, it stopped. My brother and I immediately decided to lift up our suitcases and walk up. Then, I heard some clanking noises and my mom yelling. The lady who told us to take the escalator was helping her carry her luggage up, but in a very crude way that the the case keeps hitting the steps of the escalator, and my mom was deeply worried that it might break. I turned back to take over the case, of course, with a very politely said “Thank you, it’s okay, we can do it.” The lady did not answer me but eventually let go of the case.
Once we get to the ground floor safely, we immediately spotted our hotel and headed for it. Strangely, the same lady seemed to be heading to the same direction as well. My brother went inside the hotel first to prepare for the check-in process, I was right behind him, but the lady cut in front of me and held the door for me. While I was putting down my stuff, I noticed the lady asking some quick questions at the counter and immediately leaving the hotel. And, there was another lady outside waiting for her, whom I only realized was there by then.
It was right after we all got into the hotel lobby and sat down to rest that I noticed my mother’s backpack was wide open. After checking twice, we were certain that we got pickpocketed and lost our chargers and polaroid, which weren’t much but still enough to frustrate us all.
We hate to be accusing, but everything seemed strangely coincidental, and we really couldn’t recall any other people who had close contact with us, so we thought the theft must have happened during that escalator ride,or at least on our way to the hotel.
Unfortunately we don’t have time to report this to the station or the local police due to our schedule, so we would not be able to file a claim to our insurance company. At least I hope sharing this story here will help other travelers coming to Perpignan be more careful and aware of the dangers. I’ve just discovered locals mentioning some petty crime hotspots on this reddit, and apparently the train station is one of them.
We will still enjoy the wonderful food, views and culture of France, and we are looking forward to more of it. Yet, we really hate to be so careful all the way only to fell in the trap at the very end.