I was robbed today in Lyon. I am pretty alert to the usual scams and tricks but this one just caught me completely unawares.

Sitting in an underground car park while waiting for my wife, I noticed a car pull into the parking space beside me. I immediately felt there was something odd about that because there were so many empty spaces, but I didn't concentrate on it because I was distracted by a light on my dashboard.

I noticed the "door open" sign was lit up showing my boot was not shut properly.  I got out of the car, walked to the back, then opened and slammed shut the boot door and got back in the car. 

It took no more than 15 or 20 seconds. 

In that brief moment an unseen thief had grabbed my phone, cash and credit cards from the front seat.  It took me a few minutes of scrabbling around looking beneath seats before I was sure that I had been robbed, by which time the unseen thief was long gone, as was the car which had pulled in beside my driver door.

How it was done:  The thieves probably drive round the car park looking for anyone waiting in the car (e.g. waiting while the wife goes to pay for the parking ticket). Sitting in the car="trunk not locked".

Having identified me as a possible victim, one of the thieves, walking by the boot released the boot lock very gently at the same moment as I was distracted by the arriving car.  I didn't notice the slight click.  They then waited for me to notice the "door open" light, and performed the theft as I exited the car.  The thief was probably crawling so I wouldn't see him.

Within a minute the car which had pulled up in the parking space beside my driver door was gone.  (He was presumably masking the thief from public view,).  Unfortunately I was so preoccupied looking on the floor for my "dropped" things, that I failed to pay any attention to that car.

Probably this was a three-man job with a driver, a boot opener, and a crawler.

Unfortunately I must have stood out as an attractive victim, with a expensive new car and Swiss plates.  They took all my holiday money.  It destroyed my holiday. 

Luckily my phone was keyboard locked, and I have since used the "remote wipe" function.

The lessons I learned are:

1) Always turn on the internal door-locking system when you are sitting in the car.

2) If you do leave the car, even to go to the boot, take your valuables with you.

3) If you leave the car briefly,-even if you are standing next to it, shut the door and auto-lock it.

4) Never leave the keys in the ignition.  Take them with you.

5) Don't carry too many valuables or too much money, and consider the use of a "hoax wallet" with expired credit cards, and fake or worthless money.