WARNING: to those visiting ayu, pick pockets

[KillTime111]

Thought it`d be helpful to post this story to anyone that might be trying to visit Ayu at her hotel, Claridges.. I went last night and was cleverly pick pocketed. My phone (which has my life on it) was stolen last night literally right by Claridges.. at the corner of that little block on the other side of t street. The Hotel, was no more than 50 ft away..

Anyone else trying to visit her, take note of this.. I went and it seemed there were no other Ayu fans outside, so i was checking twitter to see if there was any other information.. A tall light skinned man came up to me, saying he had just came to London today from Spain, started chatting a bit, n asked if i could take a picture of him in front of a store that was next to where we were standing using his phone.. Soon after another person came up to us, a short, bald, darker skinned guy, and started interrogating us.. His story was (in not the greatest english) that there had been recent money exchange / "trades" happening recently on that street so he needed to ask us some questions. the main question he kept askin was "do you two know each other? are you guys in business with each other?"

he saw that i had my iPhone out in my hand, since i had just been checking it, and told me to immidiately put it away.. i started to put it in my coat pocket, and he said for me to put in one of my two bags so i wouldnt take it out again.. so i put it away in my bag.. Afterwards, he asked us where we were from, yadda yaddah, he made us show him our IDs, which he looked at for literally two seconds.. n first started to ask the other man to see the contents of his wallet to check for 'fake' currency.. using his mini flashlight he inspected the contents and touched the money.. i didn`t notice till later that he probably wasn`t suppose to touch people`s things without asking so.. he asked if i could open my bag (where i had put the phone in) and he pointed at things to see them.. im pretty sure that he took my photobook out.. he looked through my photobook to ayu, and pictures of friends.. and kept asking "are you hiding money away in here to exchange with him? i`m just doing my job" now that i think back.. i asked earlier if there was a problem, and his story of the "money exchange" bit seemed kinda weird.. Afterwards, he asked for me to show the contents of my wallet.. i had two american dollars.. he did not take anything out of our wallets.. i securely closed my bag after each item he inspected.. he asked us both multiple times the same question of knowing each other.. afterwards he told us to both walk in seperate directions spouting out more crime related things.. he walked in my direction, next to me.. apologizing about the situation, yaddah yaddah, and then said something in french.. i thought maybe there was someone in a car by him.. while walking, literally in front of the hotel, i noticed there was a man watching us the entire time.. i figured maybe it was someone waiting to pick up someone from the hotel.. soon after, the short man walked somewhere else.. and he had someone else follow me a large distance away till i turned the corner..

almost immidiately after i turned the corner, i opened my bag to get my phone.. i figured it was at the bottom somewhere, unreachable, so i walked up by the bond street station and found a perch to where i could empty the contects, .. my phone was gone.. out of everything. . my phone? i quickly walked back, traced my steps.. and asked the doorman and the person next to him if they had seen the people i was talking with across the street, they didnt.. but directed me to a police station kindly and tried to help.. couldnt find it, asked more people, werent helpful.. so after a while of walking and checking my bag i went back.. I hope this warning will help people..

koumori and miki told me that ayu will see fans tonight, and id like to go.. but not alone.. hEh.. my friends that i had met with over the weekend arent from london, and cant go, so if anyone is planning to go, let`s all meet up and be safe together? itd be great to meet other ayu fans..

[koumori]

I think this is a good post, only because if those guys stole his phone it might be people that will prey on those waiting on their own or isolated from the group in that area. Since Claridges is in a pretty wealthy area you can get instances of this, so everyone BE CAREFUL!

Other warnings when travelling:

1. Always make sure your bag is fully zipped. If you carry a handbag, when in a crowded area or on the tubes etc, make sure you carry it in front of you and that nothing like your phone or money is visible.

2. Try not to carry things in your back pockets, if possible. I had to tell my boyfriend to stop carrying his wallet there, only because it's so easy to snatch if you're not paying attention.

3. No matter what, don't hand your phone or anything valuable to anyone when you don't know them. If a police officer asks you to see I.D or for any of your things, ask for his I.D and licence first. If it's a true officer, they'll fully understand you asking and show it to you immediately.

4. If you're not living too close to the hotel, I fully recommend getting an Oyster card when you first arrive. You can buy them from the ticket booths in the tubes, and it's much cheaper for travelling on buses and trains - for example, a ticket can cost £2.20 with one, but will cost £4 without. They ask for a £5 deposit when you buy, which you get back when you hand it back in at the end of your stay in London. Top up the card with money at ticket booths at the tubes and it'll save you a lot of money whilst finding your way around.

5. Try and travel with people you know, or stay near people. If you're waiting on your own somewhere, try and look confident and keep aware of your surroundings. At Claridges, keep in sight of the doormen so you're not fully on your own. Plus, it gives you eye-witnesses if anyone tries anything with you.

6. A quick tip too - on escalators etc, always keep to the right if you're just standing on them. The left of escalators are for people wanting to walk up them, so try not to get in people's way!

I've been to London a lot in my life and it's a great place, just it's big and you need to keep aware like any other big city. As long as you're polite, you should be fine! Manners are empathised in this place. Just use common sense and if you're travelling with friends, keep together~

[KillTime111]

^ Great tips!!!

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Things like this make me remember not every place is like Tokyo. My friend left his passport and 500,000 yen (a bit more than 5,000 USD) in his bag on a train here and got it back with everything intact the next day.

It's really unfortunate that your phone was stolen, but very nice of you to warn everyone!

[JackieRos]

That is so crazy and I hope you get it back.
Do you have like a warranty or something?

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

Things like this make me remember not every place is like Tokyo.

courtesy is everywhere

[Beffi]

Good post, I'm sorry to hear about your phone though. Sounds like those people have a pretty thought out plan and it wasn't the first time they'd done it.

When I was in London I only went for two days, and instead of buying an Oyster card I just bought two travelcards for each day, so you can just use it in the ticket barriers instead of putting money on an Oyster card. When it was dark I just used a taxi to get back even if it was pricier because otherwise I would have been walking by myself. (To anyone getting taxis, the back, inside, and front window (I think) shows their licensed taxi number. I wouldn't risk getting in a black cab without one unless it was a different taxi company.)

Also, I had a backpack with me, but I kept an eye on it. When you're waiting to cross a busy road and there is a large crowd of people, it's best to take it off your back and carry it in front of you because it would be easy for someone to take something out of it. If there are pockets on it, I would take valuable things out of them and store them elsewhere.

[AyUmIXx]

wow that's really scary, really wonder how he could take your phone since he asked u put ur phone into ur bag. hmmm..

be careful everybody!

[Kagome-chan]

Take care guys >_<

We stayed there for 3 days and we didn't have any problem...but keep your important things always next to you!

[bondingo]

Sorry to hear that. How do you know it was him who stole it though if your bag was shut the whole time and was with you since you put it in there? I'm really not trying to be a ****, I'm just curious.

[koumori]

^ He's not out-right blaming him, but it does sound suspicious. This is just a warning to people as usually these kind of tricks happen to people standing on their own. I'd love if the OP managed to find his phone somehow and clear these people's names, but the whole thing sounds like a stupid excuse to see what he had in his bag - a police officer usually flashes his licence and never asks you to put something specifically somewhere for no good reason.

Also, the OP mentions he wasn't fluent in English, which is really off because English..well, you need to be fluent or native English to even pass the first bar to become an officer here. I could go on. But it stands that it's a good warning for those travelling around London.

[ren0210989]

ya'all need to be careful. i'm sorry for your loss
but you shouldn't have listened to the guy in the first place... he didn't show you any justified ID for such actions right? i woudn't show him anything...

[Suteisi]

One time in a parking lot I was meeting a friend and a man showed up and started asking me what I was doing there. I told him I was meeting a friend and when he pressed with more questions I told him I wasn't going to answer any of his questions unless he showed me a piece of ID stating he was a police officer or a member of some kind of law enforcement. He didn't and left.

You have the right to ask for ID if something like this happens to you. Police officers know and will show their ID before even asking questions.

You have the right to refuse to answer any questions and/or show anything to them. Unless the provide a valid piece of ID and it's clear why they wish to interogate you.

Police officers generally don't have the right to question or arrest anyone unless they have a valid reason to do so. That's how it works out here in Canada anyway, and Canada used to be a dominion of England sooooo yeah.

[ExodusUK]

I'm really sorry to hear this, but yes people don't even engage anyone like this unless they're police. A foreign person like this has no right to be asking to look through your things, even a British police officer can't ask to do on the street without a warrant or suspicion for arrest.

[Bad Wolf]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

I'm really sorry to hear this, but yes people don't even engage anyone like this unless they're police. A foreign person like this has no right to be asking to look through your things, even a British police officer can't ask to do on the street without a warrant or suspicion for arrest.

Pretty much this. I'm really sorry that this happened to the OP, because it's total balls to lose something so important, but I also feel like this could have been completely avoided.

[KillTime111]

All of your guys` points are very valid, and are all things I thought of right after the incident and when I started to calm down..

[Suteisi]

Originally Posted by KillTime111

All of your guys` points are very valid, and are all things I thought of right after the incident and when I started to calm down..

It's very stressful to suddenly be interrogated so I think many of us would have reacted the same way you did

[Beffi]

^^ Pretty sure that's how it works here, too.

[danielayu123]

hey , sorry for your loss.

like Suteisi said u do have the right to refuse to answer any questions and/or show anything to them. Unless the provide a valid piece of ID.

in HK the case will never happen

[letter]

You should have asked them for an ID. I wouldn't speak with anyone in such a manner, let alone let them touch my things, unless they proved they were from the police, or something.

[ohsixthirty]

i'm really sorry this happened to you bu, but it was nice of you to post here to warn others!

i think people should remember though, its really stressful and takes you by surprise when things like this happen. sure, after the fact you probably know what you should have done at the time, but when someone is hassling you and asking questions its easy to get taken advantage of. they catch you off guard that way, which is why KNOWING that this kind of thing happened is useful, because now if it happened to another AHS'er, they would know that it was a scam.