At one time, tourists in South Florida were a favorite target for criminals.

Hundreds of visitors were robbed, some were assaulted, and they were murdered.

It was an out-of-town journalist who made an unexpected journey from tourists to victim to advocate.

In September of 1993, Ovi Velhelm Rackabrand and his wife flew from Germany to Florida to spend their honeymoon.

They'd rented a car for the short trip to their hotel.

The two German tourists were less than five minutes from the airport, just time enough to read safety precautions in a visitor's guide when they became the newest victims.

A van pulled behind them and ran their car.

The couple knew this wasn't an accident, but a ploy robbers used to get drivers to stop their cars.

They call it bump and rob, but the Rackabrands did what they were supposed to do did not stop.

Then the gunman pulled alongside and fired a single shot.

33-year-old Ovi Velhelm was killed instantly.

His 27-year-old bride, Catherine, was unharmed.

By the end of the year, there were eight tourist murders in South Florida.

Hundreds more were robbed and many more seriously injured.

Tourists were easy targets.

You can't change people's behavior.

The lost tourists looking at street signs, holding up of maps, the camera bags, the luggage in the back seat.

It's not too hard to identify a tourist, especially around the airport.

And they have what criminals want, cameras, jewelry, video equipment, laptop computers, and they usually carry plenty of cash.

Helga Loost covered these tourist crimes as a journalist for German television.

I was working on a piece that was focused on the rash of crime that had taken place in the United States, specifically tourist-directed crime in Florida.

And during the course of that piece, we talked about safety tips for German tourists that would be traveling to the United States.

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