EpilogueI debated whether to put this in the blog and finally decided to do so. If we had been aware of this scam, we wouldn't have become the victims. We were taken by the "Fake Bird Poop" scam in our first day in Barcelona. As we were walking up the hill towards Park Guell, suddenly we were startled by some green stuff falling on our head and clothes. As we looked up to check what was going on, several people came in and pointed to the sky, suggesting that we have been dive-bombed by birds (Of course we did not understand what they were saying but the gestures were clear). They proceeded to help us clean up the mess, with tissues and bottles of water. They were very convincing. We even thanked them when they left. We did not know I got pick-pocketed until I pulled out my wallet to buy tickets at Park Guell. All the money was gone - they took the money and put the wallet back! There were red flags all along, as we dissected this instance afterwards. The poop hit both of us, covering a larger area than we expected. In fact, we even joked about the bird has diarrhea as we walked away. The "helpers" all of a sudden withdrew and walked away before cleaning us up completely. It flashed some thoughts in my head but then I rationalized that they had some place to go (they couldn't help us clean up forever). All these happened in, maybe, 30 seconds. Despite this happened at the start of our trip, we had a great time in the rest of our trip.
So you have been forewarned! Google "Fake Bird Poop Scam" and you will find all the gory details.
|