Tallinn Estonia - thefts & muggings warning (1 Viewer)

[MR. FUSION]

First the good news some local authorities in Estonia welcome camper vans with free...yes... free electricity hook-ups on their well organised stellplatz. I stayed at a lovely free stellplatz with free leccy right on the Baltic coast shore with one other van.

Now the bad news, I believe was attemptedly mugged by a guy at Tallinn when I was attempting to use one of the stupid automatic petrol stations in the town centre, he came out of nowhere right at the time I had put my credit card in the pump. He came up to me and said 'I want you to buy me 2 litres of petrol or else' ! Luckily for me my card was rejected by the pump probably because he was distracting me, and I brushed him aside in a determined but not violent way and told him my card did not work. He was immediately on his mobile for I assume backup but I got in the van and drove quickly off.....

I did not report this as frankly I did not see any Police in the length & breadth I travelled of Estonia and hardly think they have the resources to hang around for suspected petrol pump muggers.


Secondly I spoke to some other brits (very rare beast in the Balitics) who believe there were gangs doing breakins into campers parked in the Tallinn dock area car parks as they had some people casing their van and were told by some Germans they were broken into. The Germans said they were told by the police some gangs specifically targeting campers in the car parks. I camped at the official campsite where I was informed there were even breakins there last summer.

I personally would advise not leaving a camper unattended in any car parks in Tallinn at present & be on your guard at petrol stations & try and use a manned one, there is one at the docks area which I eventually used before getting on the ferry.

And I personally thought Tallinn was overtouristed and expensive crap apart from a few churches and the odd museum but if you need the ferry you have to go there

 

[camocam1]

Have been to Tallinn many times on business and mugging a at unmaned petrol is quite common, also never go to a cash machine alone

 

[Sundowners]

First the good news some local authorities in Estonia welcome camper vans with free...yes... free electricity hook-ups on their well organised stellplatz. I stayed at a lovely free stellplatz with free leccy right on the Baltic coast shore with one other van.

Now the bad news, I believe was attemptedly mugged by a guy at Tallinn when I was attempting to use one of the stupid automatic petrol stations in the town centre, he came out of nowhere right at the time I had put my credit card in the pump. He came up to me and said 'I want you to buy me 2 litres of petrol or else' ! Luckily for me my card was rejected by the pump probably because he was distracting me, and I brushed him aside in a determined but not violent way and told him my card did not work. He was immediately on his mobile for I assume backup but I got in the van and drove quickly off.....

I did not report this as frankly I did not see any Police in the length & breadth I travelled of Estonia and hardly think they have the resources to hang around for suspected petrol pump muggers.


Secondly I spoke to some other brits (very rare beast in the Balitics) who believe there were gangs doing breakins into campers parked in the Tallinn dock area car parks as they had some people casing their van and were told by some Germans they were broken into. The Germans said they were told by the police some gangs specifically targeting campers in the car parks. I camped at the official campsite where I was informed there were even breakins there last summer.

I personally would advise not leaving a camper unattended in any car parks in Tallinn at present & be on your guard at petrol stations & try and use a manned one, there is one at the docks area which I eventually used before getting on the ferry.

And I personally thought Tallinn was overtouristed and expensive crap apart from a few churches and the odd museum but if you need the ferry you have to go there

Heading there soon from Helsinki - many thanks for the warning.


Nigel, Pamala, Garry & Chris

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[MR. FUSION]

if you are really lucky you will meet the Estonian version of Henry Kane, in Tallinn complete with shabby old doctors bag (god knows whats in there) who stalks Macdonalds.......he looked me in the eye said something in Estonian and I got a flashback of this: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuet7GRv7Bo"]Poltergeist 2 Henry Kane "Evil Spooky Bad Guy scenes only" - YouTube[/ame]