The brown bag © Jerine Lay/Flickr

I was at the Personal Democracy Forum last week. As expected, it was fabulous. I had a great time with old and new friends, and I met inspiring people.

It was fantastic, except for one thing. The very first night, my handbag got stolen on a terrace downtown while having dinner with colleagues. We saw nothing. I just realised at some point that my bag was gone. It contained everything: all my credit cards, some cash, the keys to my place, my BlackBerry, and my passport among other important things.

So I learnt the hard way what you are supposed to do when you lose everything:

1. Report your stolen credit cards. My colleagues googled on their BlackBerry and managed to find a number to call but it seems there is no unique one. Each company has a different number, so good luck with that. If you have any tips, please share them in the comments!
2. Deactivate your phone’s SIM card. Then again I couldn’t find the right number and had to wait until Monday for my office to do it for me.
3. Check with the airline company you are flying back with whether they can take you on board without a passport. Good to know: if you fly back with the same airline that got you to this foreign country, then they must accept you on board. It was not my case so I had to have a new passport done.
4. Go to the police and claim your stuff was stolen. They’ll give you a paper that says you are officially a ‘victim’, which will enable you to get a new passport and get your money back from the insurance company.
5. Go and have your picture taken, specify it’s for a passport. The format is not the same as for an identity card.
6. Go to your consulate. If you’re as lucky as I was, they’ll be fast and you’ll manage to have an emergency passport within 24 hours.

My impressions of the whole thing: Barcelona thieves are pros, the Catalan police -los mossos- are stunning, and the French consulate staff are simply amazing. Long live public services!

This post is also available in: French