I got robbed $2000 in Spain During Elllobregat Chess Tournament 2022 - Story

@mvhk said in #20:
> Anyway I guess it would be better to have some cheap laptop for travelling to tournaments. During a tournament I focus fully on the chess.
>
> Weird that it is so expensive in India. My own kids buy lots of stuff from China via the internet which often is much cheaper than what is available locally. Is that no option in India?
There is import taxes when you order anything from other countries. Effectively it is cheaper to buy in India than ordering from somewhere else. Also almost all major Chinese websites are banned here.
When my laptop got stolen, I bought a new one which costed me 750 euros. I bought from Spain. The same laptop in India at that time was for $1200.

@nikhildixit said in #17:
> Is laptop only for studying chess? I purchased good quality laptop to work on multiple other stuff and not for chess.
> Also in India, laptops are expensive than Europe. $750-850 Laptop in Europe costs $1000-1200 in India.

really? which laptops are you talking about? when i bought my Dell G3 9th gen i7 in July 2020, it was only $50-60 expensive than the US, which i believe sells the cheapest laptops.

greed

Sad to hear but the reality is that Barcelona is crime infested thanks to their politics. Police trying to cover it up makes it even worse though.

I remember when this first happened fide should make sure the tournament organizers actual do something about this.

I'm sure crime is much lower in India than in the US, so there is some cultural difference, but I cannot imagine taking my laptop anywhere and not having the bag over my shoulder.

Crime is always the fault of the criminal, not the victim. Personally, that doesn't stop me from at least attempting to protect my belongings. I was expecting a story involving a weapon, and threats, etc.

So while it is not your fault that it happened, nevertheless it is an opportunity to consider: are there simple ways you could prevent it from being stolen, being in the same place with the same criminals sizing you up in the future?

@Aighearach said in #26:
> I'm sure crime is much lower in India than in the US, so there is some cultural difference, but I cannot imagine taking my laptop anywhere and not having the bag over my shoulder.
>
> Crime is always the fault of the criminal, not the victim. Personally, that doesn't stop me from at least attempting to protect my belongings. I was expecting a story involving a weapon, and threats, etc.
>
> So while it is not your fault that it happened, nevertheless it is an opportunity to consider: are there simple ways you could prevent it from being stolen, being in the same place with the same criminals sizing you up in the future?

This happened in Spain not US. Regarding crime rate Barcelona used to be quite safe till they let mass immigration in.

@OdaKolmik said in #27:
> This happened in Spain not US. Regarding crime rate Barcelona used to be quite safe till they let mass immigration in.

I don't think you correctly parsed my comment if you think there was a misunderstanding about that.

I'm from the US, the person it happened to is from India. The crime risk in India and the US are what would be excepted to shape our relative expectations of bag safety.

@mvhk said in #16:
> A laptop of 1100$ ? Why do you need such expensive laptop for?
That's funny, because I would consider $1100 a real entry-level laptop.

Shall we really get another spare crap thing to take along? Doesn't look great either.

I first went to Spain last year with our first stop in Barcelona, and the hotel concierge at Serras (The #1 hotel in all of Barcelona) implored me and my girl to give them our wristwatches to put in their safe because they were confident that they both would be stolen right from our wrists (Omega and Rolex.) They had us look up some videos of thefts in the area and had explained that it was largely due to all the cruise ships. Ultimately, we handed them over, and didn't wear a wristwatch until we were out of Barcelona.

The rest of Spain was great though. Up the Costa Brava, Cadaqués, into Andorra, etc. So, to anyone else, be very careful if you're in Barcelona. They're crafty.