Public Transportation: 21% of Violent-Free Robberies Occur There

According to the Living Environment and Safety survey, 21% of reported thefts without violence or threats occurred in public transportation between 2013 and 2018.

You have probably already heard this message during your daily travels: “Be careful with your belongings when leaving the train, pickpockets may be on the platform.” A moment of inattention or distraction, and bam, your phone, handbag, or wallet has been stolen! Some of you will go to the police station to file a report. A whole process that may eventually lead to the recovery of your stolen items…

A study by the Ministry of the Interior recorded 945,000 people who were robbed (or almost robbed) of something between 2013 and 2018 in mainland France. In understandable terms, that’s as many victims of theft (or attempted theft) as the city of Reims every year (INSEE 2017: 182,460 inhabitants).

This is a significant number, especially considering it only concerns thefts without threats or violence. Victims of these incidents amount to 175,000 during this period, enough to fill the seats of the Stade de France several times over.

Where and when do these thefts or attempted thefts happen?

The “Living Environment and Safety” survey indicates that thefts and attempted thefts mostly occur on a weekday (80%) and during the day (81%). Depending on where you live, the preferred locations for theft vary. In Île-de-France, 48% of victims experienced theft in the metro, compared to 26% on surface networks and 26% on railway networks. In the rest of the country, thefts are most common on surface networks (49%), followed by rail (34%) and metropolitan (17%) networks.

This does not include verbal assaults, which victims usually do not report.

These statistics for the Île-de-France region are not surprising. The Île-de-France Mobility Observatory (OMNIL) estimated that there were 3.281 million daily subway travelers in 2021. A phone, a wallet, or personal belongings can be quickly seized by wrongdoers… For those who have identified the thief, 47% said it was a single individual. Victims of theft indicated that 22% thought it involved multiple individuals.

Therefore, Mobiwisy offers you a few modest tips to fight these thefts as much as possible:

• Monitor your belongings closely when moving around;
• Be vigilant at stops, especially if you are using your mobile phone;
• If possible, keep your most valuable items under your jacket, in a pocket, or a concealed bag;
• Alert conductors onboard trains or via the intercom if you see something suspicious.

Also read: Bicycle thefts, the French plague