About our Christmas Eve at the police station – about heartless thieves in the Canary Islands

It was to be a special Christmas Eve – with the closest family, uniquely outside our country. We found ourselves a beautiful, wooden, stylish cottage in Tenerife, where we were all to sit down to a celebratory supper together around 6 pm.

The bagel from Poland brought, fresh shopping done, attractions in Tenerife from the morning also planned…. what could have gone wrong?

Unfortunately, our plans have been messed up by heartless thieves who, no matter the day or time, take advantage of the festive mood and carelessness of tourists. Yes! Even in the relatively safe Canary Islands….

We are posting this story as a warning to be vigilant, however, always and everywhere.

How did it start?

As we mentioned in an earlier post, our Christmas Eve was also special because of our morning plans – climbing Teide. This was the only place in the Canaries where you can see at least a substitute for snow ;)

But we didn’t go in just for the snow, we went in for the views, the sensations, overcoming our own weaknesses. The greater was the euphoria, which gave way to fatigue, once we slowly descended and made our way down. We took the opportunity to explore the crater area and stop at nearby viewpoints.

The weather was excellent, the clarity superb. The entire crater as well as the summit of Teide itself were visible, zero clouds in the sky, and the wind was weak, which attracted even more tourists, as the queue to the summit was exceptionally working. The carriages were full of people, and to buy a ticket you had to stand in line quite a lot :)

Also, there was a lot of traffic on the road, and there was a shortage of parking spaces at the viewpoints. Of course, the vast majority of cars are rental cars and a good portion of them of one make or even model, which will be of great importance later in the story :)

We’ve seen it all before, but from behind the coach windows. Now we had the opportunity to stop wherever we wanted and for however long we wanted. The fantastic rock formations, solidified lava and multicolored earth made you feel like you were on another planet (many people compare Teide’s landscape to lunar views).

Only the views from the top show how huge the area is, despite this it is still worth coming to the area, even if the cable car does not work or you do not intend to climb to the top.

Dangerous viewpoints

Viewpoints are more or less official :) By definition, you can only stop at marked places, but in practice, cars often stopped simply by the roadside.

At most of the viewpoints there are signs stating that the park area is monitored, that no stones can be taken with you, but also that you should be careful and not leave valuables in your car.

I would add that you should not leave ANY of your belongings, or leave the car at all ;)

One parking lot was particularly memorable for us – it’s a point from which you have to walk a bit to approach the best spot with a view of the entire crater. We decided that we would all go, so we locked the car as standard and moved away.

Near us stood exactly 3 of the same cars (make, model, color). When we returned, we realized that someone had stolen things from the car – some were removed from bags that the thieves had left behind for some reason, and some backpacks or bags were taken with all their contents.

They stole both money, cards, equipment and things of lesser value such as clothes, notebooks, cosmetics, etc.

Interestingly, they didn’t steal the phone, which was attached on top as navigation (maybe it was too much in plain sight?), and there were no signs of a break-in on the car. Generally a flash action, coordinated, in which many people took part, because they had to watch us where we were and when we were coming back.

We probably returned too quickly and hurriedly took the backpacks and bags instead of searching them.

The luck of the misfortune was that they did not take any documents, especially since one person from our team had a return flight bought for the next day. The lock on the car wasn’t broken either, and there were no signs of forced entry – otherwise there would probably have been a lot of paperwork waiting for us at the rental company.

Formalities after theft

Unfortunately, it was not without formalities, and since we had purchased theft insurance the whole thing had to be reported to the police.

It was getting late, we were all the way up, and the sun had already begun to set. Unfortunately, we don’t remember anything from the west, as it was more important for us to contact the insurance company, banks and find the nearest police station.

Thus, a trip to La Laguna awaited us. Around 7 pm we were in the city and looking for a police station, just praying that someone there spoke English ;-) Fortunately, we found one daredevil who, in broken English, explained to us the procedures on how to file such a case. He also informed us that we were not the only ones being smeared in exactly the same place, in exactly the same way….

Initially, we had each individual call a designated phone number from the police station and give a statement, but since not everyone spoke English, we convinced them to give their explanations on paper. Of course, the problem arose when it turned out that there were no forms in English, so we had to wait a while for someone to provide them.

At the end of the day, each of us had to fill out a 6-page form describing the entire incident along with all the stolen items and their value.

After several hours in the commissary in a small room, we were really tired and hungry, and everyone’s thoughts were already at the Christmas Eve table. After all, some of us started the day at 4-5 a.m. and were at nearly 4,000 meters above sea level, and the day dragged on and on….

We were not even offered anything to drink, and our supplies had already run out as well. Stores in the area closed, so we just wanted to leave as soon as possible. Although the whole situation was hopeless, we all started to bounce back, the jokes stuck to us, and the good moods were good :)

In general, the gentlemen policemen must have thought that the cheerful group from Poland did not care at all about the theft, and we were just already all the same. After all, there’s nothing like Christmas Eve at the police station :)

After another half hour, we got copies of all the reports and were able to go home. At about 11 pm we entered our hacienda and began preparations for supper, starting with borscht and ending with carp, and believe us, I don’t think it’s ever happened before that everyone ate so much from the Christmas table :)

The dinner lasted a very long time, the mood was good, and we will still remember the whole story for years to come :)

The question of insurance…

Unfortunately, after we returned to Poland, when we began to arrange the paperwork with the insurer. Briefly describing the case, it turned out that, first, they want confirmation of the purchase of all stolen items or a fair valuation. This we are still able to understand.

However, at the end of the day, we got a letter that we have no grounds for a claim anyway, because the car was not standing in a guarded parking lot! We are the ones to thank for such insurance! Purchased in advance also with an option against baggage theft…. And the whole thing dragged on until April, after all, they couldn’t write off right away that the insurance is not eligible :(

Despite this, we consider the day to have been extremely successful and pleasantly spent with the family. Despite the aspect of a forced trip to the police station, the mood was fortunately good for us. However, we do not wish you such an experience on any of your trips :)

>> We also recommend you our post with a summary of all of them
practical news about Tenerife
:)