Did a search before I started this, and was surprised that there hasn’t been much discussion on this topic. So here’s the thread. Let’s hear all the tragic stories. Personally, I believe the longer you live here, the more likely you’ll be a victim of theft. Here’s what happened to me:
Two friends and I took advantage of the nice weather yesterday by riding the 20k bike path around SanChong and LuZhou. After the ride, we went into SanChong (first mistake) to have some shaved ice. I locked my bike on itself (second mistake) on the sidewalk right in front of the shop. We spent barely two minutes in the shop ordering the ice. Came out and the bike was gone. According to eyewitnesses (4 people saw it as the crime was committed in broad daylight), two guys on a motorcycle rode onto the sidewalk. The guy in the back just picked up my bike, carried it on his shoulder, and made off with it. Lesson learned: don’t get a fancy bike. If you do, lock it onto something. Keep an eye on it at all times. And most important, stay away from SanChong.
I don’t really think theft is a problem here in Taiwan. Yeah, every once in a while you’ll get unlucky, but more than often I’ve heard stories of people forgetting/dropping stuff (money, cell phones, wallets, etc) and having it returned to them intact. I’ve had one friend who left his wallet in a cab, thought he’ll never get it back. He had tons of cash, credit cards, etc in the wallet. Well the next day he got a call from the police station. Turns out the driver brought it to the station and turned it in without taking a single NT. I think you’ll meet a lot more honest people than thieves here in Taiwan.
As far as the bike theft, well, I dunno about place like singapore and what not, but in most countries (US, Europe) taking a bike is almost not considered a crime so it’s not just taiwan.
Last month my wife was walking down the street and two $##@$$^$s on a scooter grabbed her purse. Credit cards, her ID card, car keys, house keys, oldest son’s ARC, and $40,000NT all gone.
People have enormously different experiences with theft. We’ve had lots of stuff stolen, but small stuff, from out of our yard. For example, we left some planters out intending them for basil and mint, but somebody nicked them. Kids in the neighborhood routinely stole stuff from us at our house in Kaohsiung, we filmed them a couple of times, but we never did anything. The one time we did confront some parents, they beat the shit out of the kid, and then he scratched up our car. You can’t win here, since they don’t have any sense they have done wrong, and will always avenge whatever thing you did wrong to them. So the kids in the neighborhood who shoot pellet guns at my dog, we do nothing. For the moment…
Our house in Taliao was entered through the second floor window and some of my wife’s costume jewelry was taken, and some shirts. We also lost lots of stuff coming through Customs when we moved back. If it sits overnight in the warehouse, they will pilfer it like crazy. 4 leather jackets went missing.
I had my brandnew bike stolen in front of the history museum though I had locked the frame onto a steel bar. They must have cut the lock, I guess. I talked to a police man who was standing there, and he was very nice, wrote everything down for me in Chinese and directed me to the next police station. However, I decided, as I probably wouldn’t get it back anyway, I wouldn’t ruin my sunday further by spending ages in a bleak police station :?
I still want to get a bike. But this time, I’ll go for something cheaper and not as fancy (it was a nice red Giant folding bike )
As to the nice story of loosing something and getting it back: two weeks ago, I dropped my mobile in the taxi going with Rascal to Shannon’s to meet a friend. I only realized when that friend called Rascal’s mobile to tell him I’d left my mobile in the taxi (he had called my mobile, and the taxi driver had picked up). The friend told me, he was about to meet our taxi driver who wanted to return my mobile. While I was still talking to him on Rascal’s mobile, the taxi driver turned up at Shannon’s, handed me my mobile, waved “No” when I told him I’d give him some money and left.
Good and bad. A friend of mine has has farming implements, bags of fertilizer etc. stolen from him - burglaries are common here.
However, the place we live is very safe due to the presence of a few burly armed guards.
My mother once forgot her purse containing plane tickets, passport, travelers checks etc in a taxi. Before she knew what happened, the taxi driver came back in order to give her the purse back.
My experience with phones is that I’ve lost 3, all in Taxis, but the third one I got back. Identical circumstances to Iris, except I wasn’t with Rascal and I wasn’t going to the Shannon.
My car has been broken into 7 times in the last 3 years in Melbourne. In a lock up garage twice. Pricks.
Our 11th-storey apartment was broken into the week before our wedding, as were 2 or 3 other apartments in our building. Aparently the guy climbed out of the stairwell window and came in through our unlocked balcony door. The bad news was that he got about USD1,000, which I had at home for some reason. The good news was that he missed the engagement ring, which was sitting out in the open. He also went through one of our drawers, dumping it out on our bed, but missed about NTD20,000 from a recent paycheck I hadn’t deposited yet.
Don’t put the backpack between your legs when you are riding your scooter.
Some teenage punk on his jacked up scooter might try a “drive-by-snatching” on you.
Happened to numerous people I know.
Aside form 4 motorcycle helmets (I always just leave them on the bike) all I’ve had stolen in over 4 years here was 50000NT - by another foreigner.
I get the strong impression that Tawian is much much safer then New Zealand for theft, and NZ is hardly a dangerous place. In pubs in NZ, you don’t leave your bags while you go to the bahtroom, but I’m always forgetting bags here and coming back tot he pub for them the nexct day no worries.
Dropped the cellphone in the taxi once too. Called, and he arranged to meet me back at the intersection in 10 minutes. Once we were eating dinner and the taxi driver came back 1/2 an hour later and gave us back a bag we’d left in the taxi. All it was was wet togs. And just a few weeks ago a taxi driver came running down Shida Night Market (about 100M) after me with the wallet I’d dropped in his cab. And taxi driver’s are a profession known for their higher than average number of crims.
Scooter theft is sposd to be common, but with my old scooter (not flash, but not bad), I used to leave the keys in the back frequently. Sometimes they’d be in plain view and nboone would think to take the bike, but most of the time someone would have taken the keys out of the lock and put them in my helmet or somewhere so other people wouldn’t notice, or the shop would leave a note (we are the cake shop, we found your keys in your bike, come into the shop to get them).
I’m not trying to say theft doesn’t happen here. Just showing the other side.
Oh, and the important rider. This is Taipei City (and a bit of County) I’m talking about.
I heard a guy in New York tell a story about how he lived in the south Bronx for 20 years (which is a dangerous neighborhood, especially 10 years ago) and no one so much as touched his car ever. Then, he went down to DC for a weekend, staying overnight at a friend’s who lived in a nice suburb. When he awoke the next morning, the car had been broken into. How ironic.
I actually looked into New York crime rates once. It turns out that while certain crimes (murder, rape) are high in “bad” neighborhoods, other crimes (grand theft auto) are actually higher in “good” neighborhood, ostensibly because that’s where the best cars are.
I had a scooter in Taiwan that was honestly mistaken by an employee of an company where I was teaching as her own scooter. She just put her key in and took off. It was such a piece of crap and the keyhole was so old and worn that you could basically put anything in it and start the scooter. She returned in once she realized her mistake. Never had it stolen by a real thief, though it was there for the taking all along. Didn’t even use a U lock on the wheel.
Lesson learned: own nothing of value and no valuables shall be stolen
The phrase “taiwanese thieves are intelligent” seems to be quite common, though I never saw a proof of that - they seem to prefer brute force over brain. However, I have proof that taiwanese thieves can be very stupid:
One day I wanted to start my FZ to get to work, but I stopped the engine immediately, shocked by the Harley-like sound. I started again, but the sound was still the same. (I stood left of the bike.) Then I looked at the right side - and found the muffler gone!
Now the funny thing in this story is that the muffler (a somehow “special” model, so I can understand the “interest” in it) was broken and right that day I had planned to go to the garage to get it replaced. So for one day (actually only two short rides) I enjoyed the ride on an FZ with a truly shocking sound and the boss at the garage only shook his head in disbelief when I told him the story in the evening.
[quote=“Neo”]I had a scooter in Taiwan that was honestly mistaken by an employee of an company where I was teaching as her own scooter. She just put her key in and took off. It was such a piece of crap and the keyhole was so old and worn that you could basically put anything in it and start the scooter. She returned in once she realized her mistake.
[/quote]
Ha! I had the exact same thing happen to me in Tainan in '97. It was a very common scooter (Fuzzy I think). The lock was also very loose… Apparently someone just accidentally drove off on it, thinking it was theirs. Four hours later, it was back in the parking lot I parked it in (but on the other side). Guess they figured it out eventually.
(Unfortunately, when I went back to cancel the ‘crime’ report at the police station, they must have forgotten to push ‘enter’ or something, becuase it wasn’t registered, so I was driving around on a stolen bike for a while… but that’s another story).
A good friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint many years ago in Taoyuan. The driver of the taxi he was in turned around, pointed a gun at him, and asked for all his money. My friend was pretty drunk at the time, though, so he couldn’t be sure it was a real gun…
Taoyuan is a rough place, I live in the vicinity, and I try to make it as rough as possible…
Seriously, Taoyuan and Zhongli share the dubious distinction as the gangster capitals of Taiwan.
Petty theft is rife here, so are kidnappings etc. However somehow foreigners tend to be kept out of the action.
Once I sat with a friend in a booth on one of those coffe/book places, I heard an argument in the next booth. Suddenly, I heard one of the guys arguing starting to cry and then I heard the sound of fists against flesh as the crying guy got a sound beating. I stood up, just in time to see one guy being chased out of the shop by a couple of other guys. Weird.
so it’s not just taiwan.
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