same when you waiting outside for coach or taxi pick up.don;t leave you case or bag unatended.stand by them with hand on your stuff.never just leave your hand bags on top of cases.easy to just lift off.

you see when people check in they put there cases either to one side.or behind them.always put cases infront of you.

i must say they were very lucky to get the stuff back.but what a shock.

Right....friends parents are now back home and I can tell you exactly what happened.

Apparently her Dad was at reception and Mum and 2 rellies went over to the lifts and there was 2 blokes there waiting at lifts. When lift came her Mum and the 2 rellies got in, followed by Dad and then the 2 blokes. Lift was very cramped and her Dad asked the 2 blokes to leave the lift and for them to get the next one. They'd gone up a couple of floors, got to their room when her Mum said "XXXXX your bag's open" at which point he realised what had happened and went flying down the stairs and as he got to reception one of the men was walking across the foyer holding her Dad's stuff that he'd nicked from the bag.

He caught him, grabbed his stuff off the bloke, who along with his pal then did a runner....another tourist went running after them and they got into a car with a Dutch number plate all of which has been reported to police.

So moral of the story is to be very careful on check-in, watch to see who's hanging around the lift area and getting into the lift with you....basically keep your bags close to you at all times.

Thankfully as he got all his stuff back their holiday wasn't ruined but it could so very nearly have been a different story!