It Finally Happened To Me -- My Ipad And Laptop Were Stolen.

[teschowv]

Me too .... I'd go to the extreme ends of earth to lie for you !!

Where can I apply for a job at comesaria? I'm a retiree with very strong resume (slightly emballished but solid) .
Just to get a chance to do a report for you. I'd even go as far as saying that you were extorted at gun point.

But seriously, being pickpocketed is a tad weeeeeee bit different from leaving things unattended. NO?

What does he mean "Finally it happened to me"? ... The correct title should read " FINALLY I DID IT MYSELF"

I'm glad the little ones saw with their own eyes how things could be done the wrong way. A great lesson how to do it right. They learn from what they see, not from what you say or teach. They know better.

.............. IF IT'S NOT OK TO DO IN TORONTO ......... DON'T EXPECT IT TO BE OK IN BA.
.

Wow, pretty harsh khairyexpat, no? Firstly, "He" did not mean anything, as "he" is a "she", thank you very much.

Secondly, why are you assuming I would take up the other helpful writer's advice to lie to the police? (I have not filed a report, nor would I -- I do not have insurance, nor do I have the naivete to think the stuff would ever be recovered.)

Thirdly, I resent your comments regarding the lessons my kids learned last night. Yes, I was foolish and careless to leave the laptop case for a few minutes unattended. You know neither the day nor the week nor the month that has preceded this, and therefore you don't know my frame of mind in that fateful moment before I left the laptop case last night. We're all just doing our best, huh? As it turns out, my kids learned a very valuable lesson last about how to stay calm even when something really crummy happens. Instead of losing my temper, screaming, swearing, yelling, I facilitated a nice conversation about how not everyone is "bad" in BsAs, and about how these were not robbers, but rather, opportunists. Later in the evening, we talked about "what would YOU do if you found something that didn't belong to you?" and "Would your answer be different if you were dirt poor and you came across such a jackpot? Why?" and "What are some ways we were lucky with this?" and so on.

Finally, I would like to address your Toronto comment: Not sure about *your* 'hood, but where I come from, when people find something that is not theirs, they turn it in to the nearest authority: counter, cashier, police. The latter then keep it, and turn it over to the owner, should the latter come by and make a descriptive claim. It's called honesty, integrity, helping the world run a little more smoothly. We don't take things that don't belong to us, even if they're shiny and exciting and valuable and just sitting right there in the open, the poor schmuck to whom they belong clearly having left them behind accidentally. We do our best to reunite them with their owners. I have witnessed this both as a finder and a "loser" over my past forty years in Toronto. While I understand that life is complex, and not everyone in Toronto is honest, and not every city is as safe and honest as Toronto, I feel very blessed to call it my home, and I feel sad that BsAs is -- in that regard -- somewhat less evolved.

Just sayin'.

 

[Shoeb]

Sorry to hear that, Wonder if you would not have sold your Pacsafe bag probably you still would have been in the Elite gang.

Get a trip to Cordoba, nice mountains and lakes nearby...

 

[khairyexpat]

My sincere apology Mis .... if I was harsh, ... I was.

In a foreign land .... you're not home ... .
In BA you do NOT expect to do what you do in TO.
BA is a different another world ...
In this Forum .... some always trying to prove a point ... "BA is less evovlved" .....
It's a constant nag.


Don't feel bad, what you've lost is not grave and can be replaced.
A virus would have wiped out all your data ...
Just have to re-do all the work again.

I've done much much more dummer things ... I should be the last to cast .......

Sincerely wish you forget every word I said .... and enjoy safe stay while you're here.

.

 

[ARbound]

I feel bad that it frightened your kids, but perhaps it is a valuable lesson is the point khairyexpat was making, which in some sense, because it wasn't
violent thankfully, is something valuable.

I'd like to touch on the Toronto point though. It's safer than BSAS for sure, but the people are no better or nor worse. I was a supervisor/manager
at a place there (I'm willing to believe some people on the forum have even been) and I would often get the lost stuff that was turned in, but I also
had to take the report of the people who had their purses, phones and other valuables snatched that they left in their carts while their backs were
turned or that they had forgotten. My running score was about 45% thefts, 45% returns of lost items and 10% couldn't tell if they were lying/wanted attention or if the person stole it and then felt guilty/etc and then turned it in.

I was the type of guy that found a Woman's wallet and called the Japanese consulate's emergency line after my shift because her ID, credit cards and $300 USD worth of Yen were in it. I also was the type of guy that had to chase man down who just stole a woman's purse. It's a safer city, easy to idealize compared to here I must warn.

Finally, I've only once been the victim of violent crime. I was robbed with a friend at gunpoint a couple years ago. It wasn't in Buenos Aires, Colombia, Morocco,
Moscow, the slums of Paris, or when I was buying a soda in Detroit: It was in Toronto, in the middle of the day, a week day, infront of a Primary school.

Anything can happen anywhere you are. People just need to remember to be cautious. We will all likely be victims of crime somewhere, some time, c'est la vie.

 

[johnw100]

Sorry to hear about your loss. One tip, if you cherish what you have on your laptop, backup daily and backup to something like dropbox. Then you know if you ever loose your laptop or the drive crashes you wont at least have lost your data aswell.

 

[khairyexpat]

deleted

 

[teschowv]

Sorry to hear that, Wonder if you would not have sold your Pacsafe bag probably you still would have been in the Elite gang.

Get a trip to Cordoba, nice mountains and lakes nearby...

Hehe, I was just thinking about that, Shoeb, lol! You see, after you bought mine, I'd been using my GF's... but then she had to head out to the US, and took it with her, so we've been relying on the kids' pacsafes, which are too small for my laptop. So, as we were just going to the boys' basketball class and back (or so I thought), I just took my laptop and iPad in a soft case under my arm so I could work on a presentation while they were at their class. But then, when we ended up stopping at McD's I made my fatal mistake, and put the case down on the ledge under the counter and promptly forgot it was there, argh! You are so right -- had I had it in a backpack, I WOULD STILL HAVE IT!! Oh well, live and learn.

 

[teschowv]

I feel bad that it frightened your kids, but perhaps it is a valuable lesson is the point khairyexpat was making, which in some sense, because it wasn't
violent thankfully, is something valuable.

I'd like to touch on the Toronto point though. It's safer than BSAS for sure, but the people are no better or nor worse. I was a supervisor/manager
at a place there (I'm willing to believe some people on the forum have even been) and I would often get the lost stuff that was turned in, but I also
had to take the report of the people who had their purses, phones and other valuables snatched that they left in their carts while their backs were
turned or that they had forgotten. My running score was about 45% thefts, 45% returns of lost items and 10% couldn't tell if they were lying/wanted attention or if the person stole it and then felt guilty/etc and then turned it in.

I was the type of guy that found a Woman's wallet and called the Japanese consulate's emergency line after my shift because her ID, credit cards and $300 USD worth of Yen were in it. I also was the type of guy that had to chase man down who just stole a woman's purse. It's a safer city, easy to idealize compared to here I must warn.

Finally, I've only once been the victim of violent crime. I was robbed with a friend at gunpoint a couple years ago. It wasn't in Buenos Aires, Colombia, Morocco,
Moscow, the slums of Paris, or when I was buying a soda in Detroit: It was in Toronto, in the middle of the day, a week day, infront of a Primary school.

Anything can happen anywhere you are. People just need to remember to be cautious. We will all likely be victims of crime somewhere, some time, c'est la vie.

Your point is well taken... you are right, one cannot stereotype. I know that Toronto is not crimeless, and actually, after 6 months in BsAs, this is the first time something like this has happened, and as so many pointed out, it's not violent. So, anyway, sorry if I allowed my "home" bias to shine through. Opportunist folks are everywhere, as are careless creatures like me.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Me, Ceviche, ARBound, Canick, Gringoboy, Joe and Steve just got back from Villa 31 (where we expected your laptop and iPhone wound up). We kicked some doors in, turned over some tables, and generally made loud menacing noises. There were cries of, "Oh my god, the GRINGOS are here!"

We confiscated 54 cell phones (Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, Nokia) 23 laptops (Sony, HP, Acer, Dell and Toshiba), assorted backpacks, 6 policemen's badges, a Direct TV antenna dish and a GE microwave oven - which we made Ceviche carry. Unfortunately, don't see your laptop or phone anywhere in this pile.

 

[khairyexpat]

Me, Ceviche, ARBound, Canick, Gringoboy, Joe and Steve just got back from Villa 31 (where we expected your laptop and iPhone wound up). We kicked some doors in, turned over some tables, and generally made loud menacing noises. There were cries of, "Oh my god, the GRINGOS are here!"

We confiscated 54 cell phones (Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, Nokia) 23 laptops (Sony, HP, Acer, Dell and Toshiba), assorted backpacks, 6 policemen's badges, a Direct TV antenna dish and a GE microwave oven - which we made Ceviche carry. Unfortunately, don't see your laptop or phone anywhere in this pile.

You're out of control.

.