Right in front of my door at home, yes. While I am travelling, no. I am usually quite careful. If you don't give a pickpocket an opportunity, you will be quite safe.

In a crowd I always wear my backpack either on the side with an arm over it or in front of me. Only if I am in wide open spaces will I put it on my back. Sometimes I even have one of those small combination locks on the zippers, although they don't offer good protection. Some thieves just cut your bag open and steal the contents. 

Andre

Travel Photography

so you are more safer on your travels than you are at home

Asian beaches

I guess you can say that. Sounds strange doesn't it. On the other hand I am more home than away, so I guess statistically it is more likely to happen home.

I am not so much in danger of getting robbed or something being stolen from me, but I tend to forget and lose things. 

Andre

Travel Photography

I had a camera stolen once, but I am not 100% sure about this. I may simply have lost it.

They must have thought you were a tourist and that’s the reason why robbed you  

Beach Forum 

No tourist would be renting a sh***y car such as mine. They took out a really expensive radio and damaged the door. Oh well. 

Andre

Travel Photography

Makes me wonder if it is wise to tell everyone about your favorite places for hiding valuables? I think the one thing that everyone should do is not to hide everything in one place and to split valuables among all travelers in case one of you gets robbed.

In some cases it may be wise to have some money in a place ready to hand over in case you are mugged, so they won't have a bad reaction. For that matter I always have a wallet with some money in my pockets to hand over. 

well if you are a criminal I doubt you would be reading a travel forum to fine out people hiding place for there valuables. The number one rule of traveling should be only travel with thing you don’t mine losing; Now  i am not referring to your passport or your ticket.

Hervey Bay Beach Australia

Impossible. I am always traveling with some expensive camera equipment, that I would not be able to afford to replace easily. However, leaving the camera stuff at home defies the purpose of a camera in the first place.

The rule of thumb for me is therefore not to parade it around if it can be avoided. I mean I have to take it out to take photos, but otherwise I have a special photo backpack that looks fairly inconspicuous (like a normal backpack). Sometimes I protect it with a small lock and in a crowd I always wear it on my side with one arm hanging over it.

The good thing about my camera is its sturdiness. With the long lens attached it makes a perfect hammer like tool for defense.  It weighs a few pounds too (with lens). I wouldn't want to get hit by my camera.  Together with the neck strap it could make for a perfect swinging weapon too.

In all seriousness, even though my camera might survive it I would probably not try using it in this fashion.

Andre

Peru Photos

Is your camera an antique? you dont have to parade your items for thieves to figure you have valuable. 

Panama City Beach Panama

No. It my Camera Stuff together is several thousand dollars in value. So when I say it would be hard to replace, I mean I don't have a lot of spare change laying around to just go and buy a new one.

I am using a Canon 20D a Canon 70-200mm f/4 L USM a Canon 24-85mm a Canon 50mm Prime a couple of Sigma Lenses, a couple of hundred bucks worth of filters, two digital image tanks, flash cards, backup batteries, remote cable ....

It adds up. 

Andre

Travel Photography

thats seems like a pretty expensive camera, i have a simple fuji film camera that cost me £300 two years ago, would i mine losing it well for  For sentimental reason I would say no because it was a gift. if i had your camera and it was stolen i would probable cry like a baby

LONG BAY, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLAND

Real man don't cry , but the loss would really hurt me. It has taken a while to save for the equipment and to get all the right lenses for it. I went through a couple of lenses that didn't work so well until I finally realized that Canon Lenses work much better.

Andre

Philadelphia Photos

totally depends on where you go.

True. I don't mind carrying my camera in the open in some places while I am always packing it away in other places. However, there are thieves in every society and people in a poor country are not more likely to steal from you.

Andre

New York Photos

well her in london i am scared to even answer my phone in public as there have been numerous cases where people are chatting on  there phone and the next minute someone snatch it, i guess you are use to travelling around with your camera so you have a feel of when and where to take it out.

I didn't know that London was such a dangerous place.

I have heard of "Happy Slapping" though, which seems to be a questionable "sport" enjoyed by Londons youth. Here people aussault unsuspecting strangers, slapping them while someone else records this with the video phone. The videos are then shared. Makes you wonder.

I guess from this tale and yours it looks like people in London really love their cellphones. 

Andre

New York Photos

Here is the entry in wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_slapping

Have you ever been "slapped" callis? 

no i have never been slap this is the first i am hearing of this happy slapping i wouldn’t be too happy if someone decided to slap me, i would defiantly return the favor.

I had my good SLR camera stolen when I traveled to New Zealand earlier this year. But I was lucky I was talked into insuring it before I left. Lucky I have just received my brand new replacement SLR and it is a better model.

It’s all ways best to insure yourself and your belongings when you travel, did you have it stolen from you when you were out with it or was it stolen from your room or luggage.

I think insurance is like betting against yourself.

Lets say insurance costs you 5% of what your items are worth.

If you expect to loose everything in one out of 20 times, you will just about break even. If you are more careful and nothing happens 20 times, this means you will have spent as much on insurance as it would have cost you to buy everything again.

So to me this means if I am careful enough, I can beat the odds and save the money for insurance. This also means that if something happens I will have to pay out of my pocket, but by then I will have saved enough money on insurance. Even if just a smaller part of your equipment breaks or gets stolen you will still have paid less.

Paying out of pocket always hurts more than getting money from insurance, but if you calculate the odds, you will save money. After all this is what insurance companies do and how they set their premiums. Otherwise they would not be a profitable business. So they play the odds. In a sense I am my own insurance company. Since I know I am more careful than others, I can beat the odds calculated by the insurance too.

I do have insurance for things that I cannot afford to pay in any case (health, car, home), but I won't ever buy insurance for smaller valued things.

Andre

New York Photos

I usually hide my valuables in unexpected places, a sort of a disguise for the thief. I don't usually put all my money in my wallet. I insert my credit cards in the cover of my small notebook. I put cameras, etc. in between the clothes. This is the way I hide my precious possessions while I am travelling and also at home and in other places where I stay.

You could go the exact opposite direction.

My camera equipment fills a whole (special) backpack, so there is no way it can be lost or stolen (I would notice). I secure the backpack with a combination lock.

My wallet is so full of useless and useful things, that it is really thick. I would immediately feel if someone is trying to pull it from my pocket and my keychain has a lot of keys on it.

Basically because everything I carry around is rather big, it makes it harder to steal.

Andre

New York Photos