Theives 1 Watkins 0

Damn!
It was bound to happen sooner or later and when you look at how long we have been travelling we've actually done amazingly well. Sooner or later it is bound to happen though. You get yourself targeted by the theives. The sad thing is that we were warned and are fully aware of the problems, risks and counter-measures involved. We have just been getting lazy or sloppy or cocky or something lately.
First, I want to say that there are lots of ways that you can be robbed and sure enough it was the one method that I feared the most. The one method I thought would be the only one really to be tried on us with much success and hardest to defend, the grab and run. Yep, simple as that. I suppose I better just tell you what happened though.
We were sitting in the park in Fes on our second day and since there was a lockout from the hostel until 8pm and we were finished our sightseeing, we'd been lying around resting in the park. Sunset came around and as always at 6pm the city was dead. Even the cops go home so it is the perfect time for theives. Not that theives are really that bad and I certainly wouldn't expect someone to try anything violent out here but still, we knew that it was a time of risk. We were actually getting ready to pack up and head over to get some food when a young boy ran up and grabbed a bunch of our stuff from right between dad and me and takes off like a shot. Dad's back was turned and I looked like I was reading. I saw him and took off immediately and actually scared him pretty good I think. He was not expecting such a quick reaction but I am always alert to the people around me, I just wasn't aware of what we had lying around us. He was obviously working in a group and I saw the whole thing playing out but even then they are the pros and I am not. Didn't really matter though because the kid was fast or I am really out of shape because he got away. He dropped most or all of the stuff he grabbed and we retrieved most of it but at the end of it all when we were tallying up the score it turned out that mom's camera was missing. Damn! There go all the pictures that they took since leaving Egypt. I have another camera still but there were a lot of really nice shots on that one. I tend to take the scenery shots while they take most of the people, including ourselves. Sorry, but it looks like the next couple of photo albums will be less than top quality. Needless to say we are all very, very pissed and are in need of another camera :(
We have only ourselves to blame and we intend to make it a strong learning experience as I firmly believe in prevention rather than coming up with elaborate counter strategies after an attempt on us, but we definitely could've used you there Sky.
Blame who you want but blame us too. It's funny because we'd been talking about such thing recently, especially after some of the stories I've heard about this country. I feel like an idiot newbie tourist now :( Testosterone plummets and we all sneak back home with our tails between our legs after getting whupped by a little boy.
We've now moved on to Meknes, an hour down the road from Fes and also once a capital of Morocco. Just got here today so we will go see it tomorrow.
Ammon