“Someone stole my necklace!” Jennifer exclaimed, as she felt her small gold chain being ripped off her neck from behind. We both turned to see a man running away through the crowd. “Is that him?” James asked. As he said that, two men tackled him to the ground. One man tried to grab the phone from James’ left hand, while the other attempted to get James’ wallet from the front pocket of his pants.

We were in Santiago, exploring the city on foot, the day before embarking on a cruise to South Georgia. We had just left Plaza de Armas, Santiago’s main square, and were walking north along Paseo Puente, pictured above, to photograph the historical Firefighters Corp building. It was a beautiful sunny day, all the stores and stalls were open, and the street was crowded with pedestrians, shoppers and tourists.

Plaza de Armas, left, and the historical Firefighters Corp building

James was stronger than the person grabbing for his phone, and was able to keep it away. He then wrapped both arms around their leg to prevent them from escaping. This also effectively immobilized the attacker so he couldn’t do much else. Meanwhile, the other person had stretched open James’ right front pocket and was nearing his wallet with other hand. With all his strength, James punched the thief’s hand several times with his cell phone.

This all happened in seconds. Jennifer turned around to see James struggling on the ground with two attackers above him. Fearing he might sustain a head injury, she yelled loudly for them to get away and threw herself between James and the attackers. Given how crowded the area was, we were both surprised that the two didn’t immediately leave, as at this point we had attracted a fair bit of attention, particularly with Jennifer’s yelling.

After being hit with the cell phone, the thief targeting James’ wallet released his grip on the pocket without getting the wallet and ran away. The person James was holding managed to wriggle out when James released an arm to strike at the wallet thief, and made another grab for James’ phone. James was again able to keep the phone away, and then noticed his gold necklace was lying on the ground. Likely the thief had dropped it in the struggle. James attempted to grab the chain, but the thief got there first. This attacker then collected the chain and also ran.

A crowd of well-wishers, speaking in rapid Spanish, crowded around to see if we were ok. They offered water and recommended in gestures to remove any other jewelry such as earrings, bracelets and watches. We were both pretty shook by the incident and just wanted to get somewhere safe and quiet. We sat down on a bench nearby and removed anything of value before continuing our walking tour. We enjoyed some street art, and the views from Cerro San Cristobal and Sky Costanera, but the attack left us feeling quite vulnerable.

The views from Cerro San Cristobal, left, and Sky Costanera

Before setting off on our walking tour, we had taken our typical precautions for areas with a reputation for petty thefts such as pickpocketing and purse or phone snatching. Jennifer had transferred any valuables from her pack to zippered pockets in her cargo leggings, and James had moved his wallet and phone from the rear to the front pockets of his jeans. As we walked, we paid extra attention to our surroundings and the people approaching us, and Jennifer kept a lookout for potential phone snatchers whenever James brought his phone out to take pictures. We were mainly concerned about grab-and-run purse and phone thefts, but hadn’t expected to be physical assaulted in a crowded street market in an attempt to steal our valuables.

We’ve traveled the world and seen a wild diversity of places, some so safe that many don’t even lock their doors and others where attention always is needed. But the amazing thing is we’ve never been attacked, robbed or even threatened. Bad people are all over the world, but generally, not that many of them.

Dirona moored in Richards Bay, South Africa, left, and Hagesund, Norway.

Taking stock, we felt lucky to be only lightly bruised and not to have lost anything other than the two necklaces. In the future, our preparation for such areas will include removing any visible jewelry and, instead of James carrying his standard wallet, we’ll consider a small money clip with just an ID and credit card that would be less of a target for thieves. We’ll likely still wear our watches, as we like the bio-tracking. The phones also are a big theft risk, but there doesn’t seem to be a good way to keep them safe, such as with a tether, without risking injury if someone grabbed it forcibly. Besides not being an obvious target, being alert to potential thieves is one of the best mitigations. We both were distracted when Jennifer’s necklace was stolen, and had we continued being vigilant of our surroundings, we might have avoided James being knocked to the ground.

Another quandary is whether we should have fought back at all or just let them have James’ wallet and phone, as we both could have been injured in the struggle. But it happened so quickly, and wasn’t a “Your money or your life” mugging where the assailant presents a choice. Jennifer was mostly focused on protecting James, not his valuables, and her involvement still seems like a good decision. It was unwise of James to grab the legs of one of the attackers, but he believed that in a crowded market place help was very near. Despite literally hundreds of onlookers, however, no help was coming. And in reflection, it’s unreasonable to expect any. These are dangerous situations, and it all happened quickly.

The mugging could have happened anywhere, so we don’t blame Santiago. And we don’t want to be afraid to walk alone in new cities, as that is part of the enjoyment of travel for us. Hopefully this will just be a stressful learning experience, and we can avoid a similar event happening again.