yes its common place to leave your bottles out in Japan. yes there was a documented serial killer (still out there, not caught) who poisoned them for people to drink. yes there is a documented phenomenon where men piss in women’s water bottles.

I think my country is relatively ok in this regard, given I’ve never had anything stolen from me when leaving it out in the open, and that also applies to everywhere else I’ve been. One of my english teachers straight up said we should carry our backpacks backwards so that we wouldn’t be pickpocketed by blacks and arabs. I don’t know if I’ve seen someone more racist in my life. Might have, but the majority of balkaners are ranked competitive racists. But the rhetoric of the thefts only being carried out by systemically disadvantaged people is everywhere. Much more likely to have something stolen by the the palest white boy than anyone else.

They don’t do this in the United States. I didn’t know this was a thing.

atp when someone says that Poland is a safe country or a low crime country I think of it as of a dogwhistle