Theft and robbery

When expats living in Brussels flock together in a Japanese restaurant in the evening, there is always a topic that always excites all the people any time: theft and robbery cases occurred either on him/herself or on friends and colleagues: apartment was burglarized during absence in vacation, car was broken into despite of anti-theft system, bag was pickpocketed near Grand -Place etc. One of extreme but not so exceptional case is those happened during the move back Japan. A fake moving company showed up before the right one arrived and took almost all the furniture and household goods. Even in my apartment in Woluwe Saint-Lambert the landlord warned me several times of the theft that took place in other room.

For local residents it may be part of their daily life (I understand that many people are warried about the increase in the cases, though). For Japanese, it is simply startling. We hardly see victims of theft in our office (it does occasionally it happen in congested commuter trains, though) or in neighbors in Tokyo.

But Brussels is not at all the only major European city plagued by theft cases. I can assure you that it occurs ALL OVER Europe. Any Japanese who is traveling in, our assigned to work in Europe, just be fully cautious.

A beautiful evening in Summer at Mongomery, Brussels.