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Fool Muggers with a Dummy Wallet

By , About.com Guide

Student Travel - Pesky Pickpockets Photo

Watch Your Backside

Courtesy of The Abroad View Foundation
Traveler Ian Murdoch once had an unpleasant mugging experience at the end of a long knife in Tunisia. Since then, he says, "I always take steps to foil muggers. I buy a really cheap wallet and stuff it with a few low denomination notes of the local currency. I also put in a couple of those credit card-like plastic cards (pocket calendars, business cards...whatever). If I ever am in (that) situation again, I can quite happily hand over my dummy wallet - and hopefully get away with my life!"

Pretty smart. I receive credit card offers in the mail, replete with an unusable plastic card which looks like a real credit card (guess they think I'll grab the phone and beg for the real thing). If you or your parents have received similar offers, keep the "fake" cards for future use in your dummy wallet. Sticking a dummy wallet in your back pocket could keep you from an unpleasant close encounter with a long knife in Tunisia, evidently.

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
--Robert Louis Stevenson

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