Passport stolen: Apply for replacement or wait for it?

[Arif Shah]

Hi,

I had posted a thread a few days ago regarding my stolen backpack that had my laptop, passport and other travel documents. As suggested by many, I have reported it to police station and other companies. Now I have another question in mind. Should I wait a bit more to see if I can get my passport back or should I apply for a replacement one? The problem is that in my country you can get second time passport easily, but if by any chance you happen to lose your travel documents a second time, It becomes a pain in the neck to get a replacement passport and in some cases they put a stop to your international travel. So I think its a big disadvantage not only in terms of money but also in terms of getting the replacement pastors when one gets the passport stolen. It also gets a lot of time since our embassy is in Switzerland.

Therefore, I am weighing the chances that maybe i can get at-least my travel documents back if not the laptop. I basically want to know what usually happens to other stuff when a thief picks his valuable from the backpack. I believe some of you might have come across such situation to have your stuff stolen or picked up from bus but get your documents back by some luck. I think my backpack was not stolen by a professional one. Since i forgot it on my seat, someone just picked it up. Though I followed the bus after few minutes, it was enough time for someone to get away with my stuff

Do such casual thieves throw away the documents into some garbage to hide the evidence of being caught? or they just leave it somewhere where people can notice it and return it to police. My best bet is (and my wish as well) that the thief picks the laptop from backpack and throw away the backpack which would be my best case and it increases the chances of someone noticing it and bringing it to the police.

I might sound stupid to be calculating different scenarios but the fact is that I am in a very desperate situation. Just want to know if someone has faced the exact same situation and was lucky enough to get his valued documents back. I am weighing my options here and trying to see if I should wait a week more before applying for a replacement passport.

The backpack also had few documents that had my phone number, email address and home address in Finland. Therefore as time passes, the chances of getting it back are getting slim because if someone had found them, they would have contacted me by now.

Arif

[atas]

Well, one friend of mine had his bag stolen by a "professional", containing his id card, credit cards and other documents. He looked around in garbage cans in the area, but he didn't find the bag. Cancelled his credit/cash cards and they told him that the thief actually attempted to withdraw money with the cash cards. Finally, he was informed by the police after months that his id card was found at a different part of the city from where it was stolen.

I myself had (possibly) lost my id card, probably in a bus, but it was never found.

I am offering just two data points, but I think the chances of your documents being found are pretty low (if your stuff was stolen, as it seems).

Good luck, anyway.

[AldenG]

Totally depends on who stole it.

Low-level thieves may throw away the documents but in the wrong hands they are much more valuable for resale than the laptop. In the worst case you could be falsely blamed for criminal or even terrorist activities. If your passport does get sold and repurposed, nothing good can come of that, and it could work out very badly indeed -- for someone else if not for you.

[Arif Shah]

I have already filed a police report and also contacted the embassy. The embassy suggested that i wait a few days to get it back and then file a replacement application If I dont find it back. If I find it back, I should contact them again. I have also contacted banks and have disabled the passport identification on my accounts. I hope that it will be useless for someone else

[Rip]

I once list mine abroad. Reported it at a embassy and got a new one year one for retken trio. After a few months the old one found its way back to Finland and I swapped the one year passport to the old one at the local police station - but it was likely never on dishonest hands in the first place.

[AldenG]

Probably best to follow the embassy's instructions.

[rinso]

Leaving your papers in a "findable" place is a risk for the thief. If they don't turn up after a couple of days, consider them permanent lost.

[Oombongo]

Get a new one. Nobody knows where you passport had been, and under worst case scenario you may not want to enjoy the CIA extradition flight(s).