Gypsies aren't considered people in ex-communist countries. Blacks in USA think they have it hard, they've seen nothing. Now there are some anti-discriminatory laws in place so people need to be careful when calling gypsies names but those laws aren't enforced. Before that you would typically see gypsies being treated as less than people everywhere you go.
Thing is, in ex-communist country everybody will rob you if you're not careful. It's a good test to test how sheltered someone is. You need to take extra care of your stuff and never leave them unprotected.
I've been robbed as a kid in school (by wannabe mobster kids who had working scheme stealing expensive sneakers from other kids, whole thing being given okay by certain teachers) and once they stole my cellphone in university because I was careless. You think you're safe in university building, surrounded by future intellectuals. Nope!
Every time I enter supermarket I need to take extra care about prices because they literally have based their business on robbing older people who have bad eyesight. Kinda like modern gamers are being tricked in gambling schemes concealed as microtransactions.
Difference between gypsies and rest of local population is that gypsies are sincere about their stealing tendencies, they don't even try to conceal it. Rest are smiling in your face while robbing you blind, in case you happen to be a sucker.
Another things, when you're coming from Serbia you're treated as a gypsy every time you enter borders of European Union. Your skin color doesn't matter. And if you happen to be brownish you're going to be asked to move to a different line with actual gypsy families, despite your financial status. Didn't happen to me because I'm pale but I've seen it with my eyes.
When communism was going strong you could leave your car in the open and no one would try to steal it from you. That's because communism was extremely harsh to criminals. But with fall of communism, actual criminals were the one who brought freedom and in decade after the fall affected countries were like wild west.