So it happened!

One thing you get warned of in Medellin is to get robbed.

And there seems to be good reason for it, during my stay here I have heard of many friends, or friends of friends, who got robbed. The most common case: woman walking on empty street. Man coming by on motorcycle and threatening with gun or knife to hand over all belongings. Key word: empty street.

I usually take care in not walking on empty streets, and if I have to, I try not to have too many valuable things on me.

So that's the street robber. As I have understood, these guys are usually from poor neighborhoods and go on their little "journeys" in other parts of the city and then return home.

Another one is the "public space" robber. Or let's call him a thief. This is the one I encountered last week.

I was sitting on a cafe, a pretty safe-looking one, situated on the second floor in a multi-purpose building with libraries, gym, pool etc. But I made a mistake: I put my backpack on the floor.

About two hours later, after being in work conversations over the table, I reached for my bag: gone.

So the whole procedure took place. Talking with the security guard, asking the people at the other tables, then going to the police, then to the prosecution office. The cafeteria had surveillance cameras, and I had been told I could get access to the recordings.

Finally, a couple days later, I went to the head offices of the cafe, that belongs to a mutual funds organization. With the prosecution report in my hand, I was able to enter the "security hub" of the organization, where they have all their surveillance camera recordings. As always in Medellin, you get treated as a king as a foreigner.

So I saw it, on the desaturated big screen in the surveillance hub: the theft. There I was, sitting at my table. And there he was, the guy. The man who with cold calculation and focused malice took my backpack. Frame by frame, I watched how he first just sat at a table, having a mineral water, overlooking the cafeteria, like relaxing. Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, white sports shoes, sunglasses. Not awakening anybody's attention.

Then after doing that for a couple minutes, he approached my bag, took it, sat down at his table again and put my bag in his lap as if it was his. Then he looked into it. Then took another sip of the bottle. Took up his phone and simulated a phone call. Then a couple minutes later put my bag on his shoulder and just walked out.

In one way it was good to see what happened. It confirms that my bag got stolen. I hadn't forgotten it anywhere else or anything. In another, it was shocking to see how a person can behave in such a calculated, shameless, evil way.

In my opinion, the guy's behavior showed experience. This guy is a specialist and has done this many times.

In the bag, I neither had my laptop nor my phone, nor my wallet. But I had my prescription glasses, my small camera, my Mac charger and a 1TB hard drive. And I don't have a theft insurance.

I had been warned in several other cafeterias/restaurants not to put my bag too far away from me. I guess I had to have it happen to learn the lesson.