Watch out for airport passport thieves

By Gemma Quinn

BRITONS arriving at Alicante Airport are being warned to be extra vigilant of thieves at the car hire collection point.

The British Consulate has put a warning out due to the fact that one in five British passports stolen in Alicante Province are taken at the airport, half of which are stolen from vehicles there.

A further one out of five stolen British passports are taken from vehicles on the road or in car parks, with the high level of passport thefts from vehicles now the focus of a new drive by the consulate and police.

The British Consulate has met car hire companies at Alicante Airport and the National Police to discuss ways to reduce the number of British nationals who fall victim to passport robbery when they collect their hire cars.

The consulate asked car hire companies to remove stickers from the back of cars as this makes them an obvious target for thieves, and one company revealed that since removing stickers from its cars, the number of broken windscreens had reduced greatly.

Car hire companies said they would also issue new advice to customers to be extra wary when loading and unloading cars, to make sure personal belongings were not visible and to ignore any attempts to distract you whilst driving.

The police also promised more patrols at the car hire collection points. They also urged car hire companies to publicise the 902 102 112 number for tourists to report a crime in English if they do fall victim.