Thievery Universal

I have been reading with interest and growing irritation the letters from readers telling of their experiences with thieves in Europe and other parts of the world. During the last several years my family and I have traveled in many foreign countries, driving 6,500 miles through Europe, 6,000 miles through Mexico and 2,500 miles in Great Britain. We stay mostly in small hotels and B&Bs;, usually parking on the streets, and never in eight years have we experienced a single theft or threatening situation of any kind.

However, last month I spent the night at a hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and parked my car on the street. The next morning I discovered that the locked trunk of the car had been broken into and some purchases I had made the day before stolen.

A year before, my daughter reminded me, her car had been broken into in front of the same hotel.

A few years earlier we were in New York City and caught in the middle of a gang war that erupted suddenly near Times Square. Fortunately, New York’s Finest were nearby and soon had the situation under control. I have never, in any city in the world, been so frightened.

Thieves and other criminals do not exist only in foreign countries, but are an unfortunate fact of life in the United States as well.

My husband and I read the Times Travel Section thoroughly every Sunday and have benefited from the valuable information offered as well as enjoying the high level of reporting.

LOREEN S. CLOW

San Marcos