What does a person experience when they’re robbed? What happens to someone who is so vulnerable that they cannot defend themselves? Our visually impaired client, Dóra Pozsgay, had her bag stolen at the end of October while she was attending to her guide dog. The incident deeply upset her, and we are now looking for witnesses — we ask anyone who knows anything about the case to come forward.

On the morning of October 31, Dóra Pozsgay’s bag was stolen in Budapest, District XIV, in front of 169 Nagy Lajos király Road. Dóra had placed her bag for a short time on top of a trash bin on the street while putting the harness on her guide dog, and by the time she turned back, the bag was gone.

Dóra’s personal documents, bank card, and medication disappeared. Some of her identification documents have since been found, but not all of them. Her financial loss amounts to about 70,000 forints, but what she misses most are her earphones and her USB drive, which contained the manuscript of her own book. Fortunately, she was able to quickly replace the medication she takes for her transplant, as she needs to take it daily. She filed a police report that same day.

Before leaving her home for a walk with Noé, her guide dog, Dóra stopped in front of her house because there is a grassy area a few meters away where her dog usually does its business within a few minutes before they continue on their way.

“As usual, I put my bag on top of the trash bin — I need to do that because this is where I pick up after my dog. I have no residual vision, meaning I can’t see anything at all, so I rely on knowing my dog’s habits and using my white cane to determine where things are. My bag would get in the way during this process, so I took it off. Noé has learned very well to sit and wait, but when I turned back, the bag was gone. I felt around on the ground with my hands but couldn’t find it. There’s also a service called ‘Távszem’ — a mobile app specifically for visually impaired people — and with the help of a sighted assistant through that service, we checked the area, but we found nothing.”

Dóra began to panic. She called her parents and then the police, where she was told that if she wanted to file a report, she would have to go in person to the District XIV police station. There was no mention of sending out a patrol. Since Dóra doesn’t know where the district station is located, her brother drove her there.
“After waiting four hours, a young policewoman finally took my statement. She was kind, read back what she had written, and told me that since I’m visually impaired, she would contact me by phone later, so I wouldn’t need to come back in person. There’s a public security camera at the street corner — I just hope the police check its footage.”

Questions and Tormenting Thoughts 

When Dóra realized her bag had been stolen, she panicked. The stress and panic immediately triggered the muscle-twitching symptoms she had recently been diagnosed with as part of a panic disorder.

“I tried to stay calm, but I ended up crying, because I usually take very good care of my things — I’ve never lost anything valuable.”
Then, on her parents’ advice, she tried to pull herself together and focus on the tasks she needed to do so the situation wouldn’t get worse — for example, to prevent someone from withdrawing money from her bank card.

Even many days after the incident she keeps thinking about what the thief might do with the items that were in her bag.
“Why did they choose me to steal from? I think they watched me, they saw that I’m blind, and for that reason they treated my bag as easy prey. I find that disgusting, but I also blame myself — I shouldn’t have left my bag on top of the bin.”

She’s realized she really doesn’t feel like walking Noé in front of her building anymore because she’s afraid something similar will happen again. Most of her documents were returned to her by a kind woman, but her address card was not among them.

“Because of that I’m afraid someone who knows my address could break into my home at any time. From now on, when I’m at home or when I leave, in addition to the regular locks I’ll also fasten the door chain.”

We asked her what she would say to the person who stole from her:

“That this is the nastiest thing they could have done. In my first rage I wished they’d go blind and then try to rob again. Since then I’ve wished that they go to prison, so they can’t steal from others again.”

Dóra says this story has a message, especially for her peers:

“A visually impaired person needs to be extra careful and watchful with their valuables, because a thief won’t care whether you have problems in life. If someone wants to steal, they won’t care whether a person can see or not.”

She Has Been Robbed Multiple Times Before

Dóra has been robbed twice before — both times in broad daylight. When she was still using a white cane to get around, someone on the metro told her that her bag was open — but of course, her wallet was already gone. Three years ago, while riding Budapest’s 74 trolleybus, someone again warned her that her bag was open; by then she was already traveling with Noé, her guide dog.

“I only felt someone bump into me, and in that moment they unzipped my bag and took my wallet.”

We’re Looking for Witnesses!

The theft occurred on October 31, between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m., in Budapest’s 14th District, in front of 169 Nagy Lajos király Road.
We ask anyone who saw the incident, has a security camera nearby, or may have found a brown, leather-like handbag to contact the District XIV Police Department, so that Dóra can recover her belongings.