God bless you, I'll bet it was. Do you travel with jewelry now?
I have a friend that was in Rio & the woman she was with had on a Cartier. They got in a cab & he took them somewhere & got stopped by some gunmen. It was all a set up with the cab driver. The gunmen knew she had a cartier watch & that's what he requested even though the dumb broad who had the watch on said she didn't have one. He put a gun to her head & she turned it over. My friend no longer talks to this idiot who thought their lives were worth less than her keeping the watch.
I was the victim of an attempted robbery in another South American country. (I was my traveling companions fault. Really stupid.) So cops were watching this duo at the airport before they came to us. Lucky for us.
My life is worth much more than me needing to travel with jewelry. I hear,well its insured. I don't want to go through another robbery attempt.
Once in a life time is enough for me.
When I was in Switzerland 2 years ago a guy tried to pickpocket me. I had no jewelry at all. Only my wedding band.
He was walking beside me & waving a dirty scarf in front of my face, speaking in French, trying to
distract me. (thought he wanted my Hermes shawl I had under my coat.) He kept running his hand along my arm, trying to find a bracelet, watch, whatever. The hotel manager told us what he was doing when we reported it. DH gave him a huge shove to get away from me & the guy went flying out of control, tripped & fell.
oh wow...i'm so glad you guys got out of those situations safely...but yes once in a lifetime is already too much! Honestly, God bless you all... @_@