SINGAPORE: A group of tourists from Singapore who visited Milan over the holidays lost more than $15,000 worth of cash and items when their tour bus was broken into and their suitcases were stolen.
According to a report in Shin Min Daily News, the tourists claimed to have been told by the tour leader at the beginning of the trip that the bus was the “safest place” for them to leave their bags and luggage.
The leader also suggested that they could keep their belongings on the bus when they alighted at the stops.
The tour lasted 11 days, from Dec 13 to 24 and took a group of 33 people to several stops in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland. It costs each traveller $4,238.
The robbery occurred on their last night in Milan. At around 9:00 pm, the group left the bus to have dinner. Before 10:00, a 38-year-old Singaporean woman on the tour with her mother returned to the bus.
Ms Huang found out that their luggage, which they had stored in the overhead compartment of the bus, was gone.
After Ms Huang yelled out that her bag was missing, other tourists quickly checked on their belongings and found that some bags were also gone. Five tourists in all had their bags stolen from them.
A Yves Saint Laurent designer handbag worth $2,734 was among the recently purchased items that Ms Huang had lost. It was the first time that Ms Huang, a secretary, purchased a designer bag, and she told Shin Min Daily News that the loss was “heartbreaking.”
A 52-year-old tourist, Li Meiling, lost a Louis Vuitton wallet, a Tag Heuer watch, and €350 ($490) in cash. The robbers also took a handbag from the Italian luxury fashion house Fendi that she had just bought. In all, her losses amounted to more than $9,000.
Ms Li, who her husband and son accompanied on her first trip to Europe, said that she did not expect to have gotten robbed on a tour bus.
“If I didn’t listen to the tour guide, I would have brought all my valuables with me. If I was robbed on the street, I would have accepted it,” she told Shin Min Daily News.
According to Ms Huang and Ms Li, after discovering that their items had been stolen, they were told by the tour guide and the bus driver that they should go back to the hotel to rest since it was already late. As a result, they only filed a police report the morning after the incident.
The two women found the circumstances around the robbery suspicious, including the fact that there had been no signs that the windows and doors of the bus had been forcibly opened.
They were also told by the driver that the door on the bus was faulty, which Ms Huang found to be “too much of a coincidence.”
Furthermore, while the driver told the tourists that he had stayed on the bus the whole time, the story he told the police in Milan was different, as he had said to them he had briefly stepped out.
The tour had been organized by EU Holidays, a travel agency based in Singapore. The company denied that the tour leader had ever told the tour group that the bus was the “safest place” where they could keep their bags and suitcases.
It added that it conducts briefings prior to their flights to tell travellers that they are responsible for their own belongings and that they are endeavouring to help the affected tourists with their claims.
However, Ms Huang and Ms Li have told Shin Min Daily News that EU Holidays has said it will not take responsibility for the losses the tourists incurred in Milan. They are also considering filing a claim with the Small Claims Tribunals. /TISG
Featured photo from Wikipedia (Marco Pagani)