Calling it ‘a heist’ may be stretching it a bit, but it is a catchy title. It wasn’t a bank robbery/hostage situation like ‘Inside Man’, although I wish there were more of those in real life, would make for great entertainment. It wasn’t stealing an old, valuable sword, like that mediocre Deniro/Norton movie, although I would love to be a part of something like that. Keep my in mind.

I’ve been warned by locals a handful of times since I’ve been here. ‘Be careful of pickpockets, especially on Las Ramblas’. When eating at an outdoor cafe, ‘keep your bag close, someone may grab it’. And the like.

I was lying on the beach today, about 15ft away from a group of 5 guys, speaking English, but not American. They had 2 lounge chairs and 3 towels, mostly covered by an umbrella, in a pretty tight space. I raise my head up from my sun worship for some reason (probably to check 1 of my blackberrys), and notice a dude. The dude is kind of just hovering around our area, slowly, He looked like a dude that should be on a beach in Barcelona. No shirt, sunglasses, sandals, and a bag thrown across his shoulder. For some reason, I was intrigued. As I continue to watch I realize that 2 of the 5 guys aren’t there, and the other 3 are sleeping on the towels, no clue what’s going on around them. I watch the dude notice what I notice, although he had probably noticed it a few minutes earlier, which is why he’s ‘the dude’ in the first place.

The dude does one more slow look at his surroundings, takes the bag off his shoulder and places it down on one of the lounge chairs. He stands back up with the same bag, except this time he has a pair of sunglasses in his hand. He casually walks away, looking at his new acquisition. I continue to watch him. He signals to his associate who’s standing over on the boardwalk, about 50ft from the beach. They walk towards each other and a handoff is made, and the dude goes back to ‘work’, a little further down the beach.

I give a little ‘hmm…interesting’ to myself, and continue listening to my ipod.

A few minutes later the other 2 guys come back, and a few minutes after that, it’s clear to me, and only me I assume, that they realize the glasses are gone. They start picking up towels, looking in bags, etc. All the normal things that anyone would do while looking for a lost item. I avoid watching as I am probably near the top of their list of suspects.

Did I consider saying anything about what I witnessed? If so, it was for approximately 1.3 seconds. The last thing I want to do is get involved, tell them what I saw, and start looking for the dude on the beach, who didn’t even have the glasses on him anymore. If I point him out, then what? I’m labeled ‘El Raton’ by the shadiest crew on a beach I plan on frequenting? I’d have a bulls-eye on my back as if I had a ‘trampstamp’ (no offense…I love tramps…especially those with stamps).

Now I just have to make sure to never fall asleep on the beach.