I met an elderly couple last night who are renting a villa up near Monte Carvoeiro. On their first day here a thief stole the lady's handbag from the villa while they were in it. Apart from all their cash Euros, credit cards and much needed glasses the handbag also contained their passports. To get single trip passports in order to get home they have had to pay the British Consulate in Portimao 138 Euros each which added to the cost of new photos at 15 Euros each plus taxi fares of 40 Euros total makes a total cost of 346 Euros and then they will have to pay for new passports back in the UK.
Daylight robbery twice

For some reason this time of year appears to be rife for villa breakins
My villa was broken into exactly this time last year at 5.50am whilst my daughter was in bed and the cheeky beggar even rifled through her bag in the bedroom whilst she was asleep. There was quite a few other incidents that week.

Unfortunately, they are after cash/phones/cards which the tourists have in abundance!

But why does the consulate have to rip them off as well ?