The Travel Psychologist’s
Travel Tale:
Pandemonium on the Madrid Metro?

I was riding the Madrid metro, standing in the center part of the car. I was loaded down with an attaché case, a backpack, rolled up posters—I had stuff in my hands and in all my pockets. I was, shall we say, ‘oblivious’ In sum, I was a mess!—an accident ready to happen—a perfect victim in waiting!

        I was relatively unconscious…rather, shall we say, I was ‘oblivious’ to all that was going on around me. That is, I was ‘running on automatic’—I was typically simply unthinking about my environs and surroundings. This, I would say, is the typical sort of oblivious state that most people would be in while riding, say, the New York Subway after work, on the way back home. I was frozen in the present, in this endless moment of time. Nothing on my mind. Again, oblivious to everything going on and everyone around me.

        Suddenly I noticed that my trousers had been scuffed—apparently accidentally scuffed by a seated passenger's shoe on my left. My gaze focused now on this person taking a hold of the scuffed portion of the pant leg of my jeans in one hand, and brushing away the ‘scuff’ with the other—all the while maintaining an apologetic demeanor as if to say, "I'm so sorry. Let me brush the ‘scuff’ away.”

        My gaze naturally moved to the brushing motion of his second hand. Now, what was so interesting is the manner by which he was brushing away the scuff: It was rhythmic, repetitive, and hypnotic—it captured and held my complete attention. I was totally focused on the motion of his hand.

        Then, I sensed something. I thought it was very odd what was happening. How is it that my pants were scuffed by a seated passenger? How could that really be possible? Something was out of place. Now, all of this was happening at  seemingly 'lightning speed', albeit as if in slow motion. That is, it was all actually transpiring in an instant, yet the moment was almost frozen in place. I noticed that I was beginning to perceive that something was not quite right.

        As a result I turned around and noticed two other guys standing directly behind me—too close, actually. Oddly and interestingly, the three faces appeared to be very similar: The seated guy and the two guys behind me were somewhat swarthy-looking and relatively dark complected.

        I knew something was amiss but I was still not quite conscious of it—something was happening to ME—yet I didn't exactly comprehend what it was. I actually looked each of the two guys behind me directly in the eyes, one after the other, as well as the guy seated, still, without yet fully comprehending what was happening to me or why I was even looking at them. It was not comprehension—it was an inkling—a small sparkle of awareness. It was clear, however, I was on to something. They knew that I knew—or almost knew! THAT was enough for them.

         The Metro came to a stop. The door opened. The three guys—apparently Spanish gypsies—immediately flew out the door, running. I knew something had just transpired but still I had not quite yet comprehended what or why. I was clearly dazed by it all.

        Strangely, and almost instinctively, I began feeling my pockets—one after another—almost grasping them in panic. I had one of these safari jackets with many pockets—22, to be exact. I suddenly realized that I had been a pick-pocketing victim. Maybe I was pick-pocketed even! What was missing? What did they get from me? Suddenly everything fell into place and I fully comprehended the incident, absolutely and totally all in an instant—an epiphany of sorts. I had been a victim.

        There's irony to all of this. The jacket saved me. Nothing was taken! Nothing was missing! All of these pockets presented themselves to the would-be -thieves as sort of a 'shell game'. There surely were goodies to be had, but where were they? They got nothing—absolutely nothing. Sure, there were items of value in one or more of these visible and invisible pockets. And, even though they got nothing, I was touching, feeling my pockets the whole day long just to reassure myself that nothing was missing. It's not a pleasant feeling, being a victim—being abused in such a way.

Now, The Travel Psychologist's take on this (let's roll this back in slow motion):

     The guy seated on the bench to my side in the metro car scuffed my trousers—as a distraction. His systematic and rhythmic brushing of my pant leg was designed to distract and hold my attention. It was hypnotic. he had my full attention. The two cohorts in back of me had a free reign to get whatever they could get from any of my pockets. Fortunately they got NOTHING!

        Now, let me reveal a secret to you: The victim was ME!—yours truly—The Travel Psychologist, himself! Yes, I was the victim; and at the same time I was NOT the victim. I was lucky. This experience really and truly opened my eyes. Suddenly the 100 or so pick-pocketing accounts (most of which I gathered through interviews afterwards) made a whole lot of sense.

     When you travel 'running on automatic' you often are oblivious to thieves working in tandem betwixt and between your moments of psychological wakefulness and psychological sleep. While you are operating in normal space-time and motion, the thieves are operating at a determined speed, faster than you can imagine. It all happens so very quickly, yet, in retrospect it can all be happening—playing out—in a sort of slow motion. As you look back and review what took place, you can see that it was a perfectly well-orchestrated effort to relieve you of your valuables.

        While you are in a relatively unconscious psychological stupor—relatively unaware of what is going on around you, this reveals more than you know. While you are in a so-called psychological 'waiting state', the perpetrators are moving at lightning speed, buoyed by their likely multiple prior successes in pulling off their robberies. Although they failed in their attempt with me, this one particular time, know that they were neither dismayed nor discouraged. I saw them a day or two later, pulling off a similar scam on tourists on another Madrid Metro car. This time they dropped keys on the floor as their distraction of choice.

They can get nothing—if you are prepared for that!

*With all due respect to the Madrid Metro authorities and the Madrid police, I believe that they have since made a concerted effort to keep the Metro more safe and secure and relatively free of thieves. For instance, I've observed police patrolling the Metro platforms with dogs. I maintain, however, in the current day and age, you should travel with valuables in a safe hidden place while on the subways of any large cities anywhere.

So what should you do? Here's The Travel Psychologist’s Take

— Dr. Michael Brein; 2009–05–08 —

* Dr. Michael Brein is ‘The Travel Psychologist’ living on Bainbridge Island, Washington. He is an avid world-traveler as well as author, publisher and lecturer on a variety of travel subjects. His travel guide series, “Michael Brein’s Travel Guides to Sightseeing by Public Transportation” may be viewed at www.michaelbrein.com. Michael Brein may be reached at michaelbrein@gmail.com or 206.618.7618.