We had just picked up a rental car and we were driving down a main road in Barcelona. A motorcycle pulled up beside us and the rider was pointing at our right rear tire, saying there was a problem. So we pulled around the corner and parked. Sure enough, the tire was completely flat.

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Right where we stopped were some bicycle food delivery guys. One of them started trying to help us, telling us the tire was flat, saying there was a mechanic around the corner who could fix it. We thanked him but, instead, we called the rental company road assistance. They said a tow truck would be out within 40 minutes. Our helpful friend hung around a while longer, but we settled into our seats to wait for the truck, and finally he left.

After more than half an hour we were still sitting, waiting. Suddenly a guy rode up on a bicycle next to Bob in the driver seat. The guy started shouting that we had a flat tire, and he started banging on the driver's door. Bob was telling him, yes, we know we have a flat. When I started to get out of the car to confront the guy he climbed back onto his scrappy ten-speed and rode away. The city has a few weirdos, I guess.

Finally the tow truck arrived. The driver asked us to remove everything we owned from the car before he lifted it. That was when we discovered that Bob's day pack, containing his laptop, an iPhone, his medications and other valuable things, was no longer on the back seat of the car.

The tow truck driver just shook his head and asked, did a fellow on a motorcycle tell you that you had this flat tire? It turns out that this is a common ruse by gangs of thieves in Barcelona. Someone slashes your tire, a man on a motorbike points it out, and after you are parked the thieves scope out what you've got (the "helpful" food delivery man?) and distract you (the "weirdo"?) while the thief grabs the goods. They pulled it off so well that we didn't even know we'd been robbed until almost an hour later.

Two policemen in a car were nearby and I got their attention. They asked if any of the stolen items were Apple products: two of them were. One officer had an iPhone but for some reason the Apple items didn't show up. We called Karen at home and she used her iPad to find the location of the goods. She sent a screen shot. The officers took a look and nodded: it was an infamous location. But they told us that their hands were tied, as police in Barcelona are not allowed to enter buildings. They said it was very frustrating to them. And certainly confusing to us.

So in the end nothing was done aside from Bob remotely disabling the devices. And I have decided that from now on in Barcelona if anyone offers to help me I will ask them to let me shoot a selfie with them first.