Safer than the Safest Safe Place

We all know that Japan is a surprisingly safe country.  I think that more than one of us has a story about losing a wallet, only to have it promptly returned, with all he cash in place!

Or once, I personally forgot my entire backpack, PC inside and all, on an extremely local
train (last stop).  I panicked, ran back to the station as soon as I realized (train was long gone), and luckily, a passenger had picked it up and turned it into the station master.  All I had to do was describe the contents and the bag was promptly returned to me.

One time, the local film shop mistakenly forgot to give me back one roll of developed film I turned in… And they remembered and handed it back to me an entire month later! Needless to say, this would not be expected in my home country.

With all these stories of lost items being returned, store cashiers chasing customers down who forget their change… I was starting to believe that there could not be a country possibly any safer!

Until I recently took a trip to the Czech Republic!

This is in a town called Kutna Hora, about one hour from Prague by train. Famous for a Ossuary they have there with chandeliers made of human skulls.  I digress…

When mothers (maybe fathers too? Didn’t see.) shop and have their baby buggies with them, they will leave the baby buggy parked outside of the shop while they go in and do
their shopping!

And I mean with the baby still inside!  So if you can picture it… Strolling along the street with baby in the baby buggy. Happen to pass an interesting shop.  Stop the buggy outside, on the sidewalk (being sure to apply the brakes so it doesn’t roll away of
course), and walking inside to take care of business.
What if while shopping someone walked by and stole the baby?!

Is my home country so uptight and paranoid that I am the only one who worries about this?

Anyway, I think the unattended baby outside phenomenon tops even the uncanny safety of Japan.   You can bet though, that even if I lived in Czech, I would carry my baby inside the store with me!