My $8 hostel locker broke and I lost my passport in Barcelona

Last month I stayed at a cheap hostel in Barcelona and the locker latch totally snapped off in the middle of the night. I woke up to my bag half out and my passport gone, someone must have grabbed it while I slept. The front desk guy just shrugged and said 'lockers are old, we told you to bring your own padlock' but the lock was built in. I spent 4 hours at the consulate and $65 on emergency docs, now I always carry a $5 cable lock and keep my passport in a hidden money belt. Anyone else had a hostel locker fail on them or am I just cursed?

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charlienelson23d ago

Ugh, that is brutal! Your story is giving me flashbacks to my own hostel disaster in Prague, where the locker key literally snapped off inside the lock, and the front desk guy tried to charge me for the damage. I had to saw through the cheap metal with a nail file I borrowed from a girl from Australia, it took like two hours and my arms were so sore. The worst part was that I didn't even lose anything valuable, but I spent the whole next day paranoid that someone would find the broken locker and take my stuff anyway. I feel like those built-in locks are just for show, they are always the first thing to break on those old bunks. So yeah, you are not cursed, it's just a rite of passage for budget travelers, I guess.