Money Moral Dilemma: Should I pay for my friend's stolen phone?

DaftyDuck

I put two mobiles in that bag: send me £600 and quick about it!

Talent

Hey, could be a good scam. Have a bag full of junk, leave it with someone to look after, organise for it to be nicked, try to claim from the samaritan....

russimp

Absolutely not!

jgriggle

Presumably if you didn't hear the request, you didn't acknowledge it. Your friend should have got you to confirm you'd watch the bag before running off. You owe nothing, that's what travel insurance is for. If you feel guilty, offer to pay the insurance excess. If your friend had no insurance it means they were happy to lose their stuff.

gaving7095

No - Lesson being don't even take the tiny, delicate, usually massively-expensive gadget to the beach.

peachyprice

It was Barcelona for goodness sake. If it's not strapped to your person it's highly likely to get pinched.

Enterprise_1701C

No, if you ask someone to look after something you should make sure that they hear you.

rdone

This once happened to me in Alton Towers and it never even crossed my mind to ask my friend to pay.
I'd ditch the "friend".

ButterflyLC

Absolutely not. Barcelona is notoriously bad for pickpockets and the beach is the one place they hit. This "friend" should be claiming his travel insurance.

JayD

Short answer 'No!'.

First, they should have made the bag less conspicuous and
2nd, you were on holiday too - not on bag guard duty, and had every right to lie back, close your eyes and relax.
3rd, it is not in our nature to expect anyone to take a piece of our property that is positioned close to us on a beach where, I assume, there are plenty of other holidaymakers. We just don't expect that kind of audacity.

So, again, no, you should not pay for the missing phone but thank you for reminding us all just how brazen thieves can be.