Tourists warned of dangers lurking in Latvian capital
NBI: Riga poses greatest risk of being crime victim
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Heli and Matti Haavisto, a couple from Imatra, in the southeast of Finland, have unknowingly sat down for a cider in an infamous bar in the centre of the Latvian capital Riga. The sightseeing for the day is over, and the unsuspecting couple take pictures of each other.
The English-language guidebook Riga in Your Pocket warns visitors to avoid the place like the plague. The place is also familiar to Finnish police. One 37-year-old Finnish man came into the pub at seven in the evening along with another foreigner. Soon women unknown to them came to the same table, along with drinks that nobody had ordered.
When the Finn left, the doorman pushed him back into the pub. The staff demanded a credit card. He was slapped in the face and punched in the stomach, through against the wall, and onto the floor. The man came to in his hotel. In his pocket he found his credit card and a receipt for 915 lat - 1,300 euros.
“Wow”, said the Haavistos after hearing the story.
Outside the window people mill on a pedestrian street. A street musician plays the recorder. Still, the atmosphere of the old town of the city is not what it once was.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that the Latvian capital Riga is where ordinary tourists are at the greatest risk of becoming victims of crime.
“At the moment there is no place in which Finns can become victims of crime as systematically as in Riga”, says Lars Henriksson of the NBI.
Henriksson says that last year, Finns lost at least EUR 300,000 to criminals in Riga.
The most typical type of scam involves credit card fraud: an additional zero is added to the bill, or the tourist is asked to key in his PIN code again, supposedly because the card did not work the first time. This way, the same bill can be paid more than once.
At the beginning of the year the Finnish NBI sent the Latvian prosecutor’s office a request for assistance. Included in the request were details of events in more than 40 suspected cases of crime last year.
“We hope that the Latvian police will start to investigate the cases”, says Maria Serenius, the Finnish Ambassador in Riga.
The pattern can be recognised during weekday evenings as well. The bar has just opened, inside there is a reddish light, and a striptease pole stands in the middle of the floor.
A well-dressed male tourist will get a cheerful young woman as company. She is wearing jeans, and no make-up. She brings two brandies to the table, two other glasses with a “love drink”, The man’s attention is focussed on the woman.
There is a price list on the table “Love drink EUR 85, Champagne 750 ml, EUR 185-EUR 1,143". A young man in a windbreaker has appeared outside, at the front door to guard the establishment.
The Haavistos are part of that majority of tourists, who can feel safe in Riga. Even in the pub with a bad reputation they are safe because they sat at the front of the bar, near the window. At the rear it is dark, and the prices are many times more expensive.
What is most important is that the Haavistos have paid for their cider when ordering it. “Fortunately, with cash.”
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 27.4.2009 - TODAY |
 Tourists warned of dangers lurking in Latvian capital |
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