I Got Robbed at a Vineyard in France
(here's a tiktok of me explaining this story if you're not in the mood to read)
I'm on day 3 of my wine trip in France, and instead of doing this big different 8 hour tour I had originally planned, I ended up going to a very nice vineyard near me, that also had an "Art Garden." A billion acres of art, all very interesting and I got tons of video of it that I'll post eventually. What happened at this vineyard however, I'm still trying to wrap my head around.
During my tour, there were 3 people who worked in wine themselves, and they were very nice. Asking well informed questions, good vibes, no issues there. They had another girl with them, who I later found out was one of the women's daughter, and she couldn't come on the tour because she had a dog with her. She later joined us for the tasting, and the only seat open was next to me. She had clearly been drinking the entire time we were on the rest of the tour, she was borderline obnoxious, but whatever. I was nice, we were similar in age and I just went with it. She is, in fact, in almost every wine video I took from today.
After the wine tour was over, this drunk girl invited me on the private golf cart tour she and the rest of her family were about to be taking. I graciously accepted, knowing these people were passionate about art and thinking it was a lucky break. Everything was going great, but then this girl stopped wanting to look at the art. She had "seen it all before" and started being really rude to her mother every time she would start telling us all interesting facts about it all. I figured, okay, she's drunk, she's annoyed by her family, again, not my business. Just enjoy the tour and move on. There were 6 of us including the tour guide.
It was at this point where I started thinking this girl was full of shit, as she told me about all of the different vineyards they owned and all of the properties they have all over the world. Nobody was contradicting her (until later, when someone else in the family said 'why is she lying to Kelly?' when she wasn't around) so I just listened and thought huh, okay, these people are rich. Good for them! Here's where it gets weird.
Every time we got off the golf cart to look at art, I brought my stuff with me. I was carrying a jacket and a little satchel. The last piece we looked at, we got off the cart and only had to walk about 15 feet away from it (facing the opposite direction.) Everyone left their stuff, the whole thing took about 5 minutes. The girl, did not come off the cart with us. I came back to the cart, and my purse was on top of my jacket, where I did not leave it. I immediately became anxious because I had about 200 dollars cash in there. I looked, and it was gone. I was speechless. After this, the girl started being weird towards me. I told myself I must've taken it out before I left for the day (I knew I didn't) and I wasn't going to confront this girl in front of her entire family. I got back to the hotel, and as I thought, the money was nowhere.
So, now I'm in a tough spot. This girl is in all my videos. This girl also, 100%, stole my money. There was absolutely zero chance that it "fell out" or that I had misplaced it - it was a wad of 20s and 1s. The family wasn't like, full of con artists or something, they were completely normal, kind people. Everyone on earth told me to "watch out for pick pocketers in Europe" and I'm extremely paranoid about that, so I have been VERY careful. Who knew, after spending FOUR HOURS with these people, that this girl was the one I needed to be careful of.
I still plan to post all the videos. I'm not going to sacrifice all the shit I did just because this psychopath wanted to feel a rush stealing my cash. This will be her consequence. BTW, she wasn't foreign - she was born in Europe and spent most of her life in America. I got robbed by a rich girl who currently lives in New York City.
I guess...the lesson here, is that anyone can steal from you. In front of their mothers, they'll still steal. They could have a stack of Cartier bracelets on their arm, and they're going to go into a relative stranger's purse and swipe cash. You can't trust a single soul on this earth.