Is it me, or do we keep hearing about the downfall of society more often? Our communities are under attack. I read the stories and think “wow, that must be rough” and then move on with my day…until it happened to me. I was robbed at the airport!
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It’s a crisp January day and I am scheduled to pick up a jet by driving from Sacramento to the Oakland Airport. Since Sacramento is my domicile airport, I take a rental car for the one way trip. The drive itself, is unremarkable. It’s a cold cloudy day with sporadic rain showers. The sun has set and it’s lightly raining by the time I arrive in Oakland.
My plan is to top the rental car off with gas before returning it, so I pull off Interstate 80 to the first airport gas station I see. When traveling by rental car, I usually put my carry-on luggage and flight bag together in either the front seat or pushed forward in the trunk. Today, my luggage is all the way back into the trunk, with my flight bag in front.
The blaring warning message emanating from the over head speakers should’ve been enough foreshadowing for me, “DO NOT LEAVE VALUABLES IN YOUR CAR!” it shouted. A quick glance around finds a busy gas station with plenty of people purchasing fuel, which gives off a false sense of security. I quickly exit the car and walk to the passenger side to add my fuel. Keeping my head up and on a swivel, nothing out of the ordinary catches my eye.
Five minutes is all it takes to fuel my car. The car doors unlock as I approach the driver’s door since the key FOB is in my pocket. I push the START button as I get in and the car comes to life. Sliding the gear shift into DRIVE, the car starts to move forward…and then it happens in a flash. A white 4 Door mini SUV zooms up beside and I hear a THUMP, THUMP.
I look over my shoulder and see the trunk lid fly open as a guy grabs my flight bag and starts to run back to the car. My first instinct was…OH NO YOU’RE NOT… and I jump out of the car to chase him. Unfortunately, my instinct to FIGHT leads me to forget my instinct to put the car in PARK first. I instantly recognize my mistake and jump back into the rolling car headed towards an impact and thankfully bring the car to a stop. Sadly, the time to stop the car was enough for my flight bag to disappear.
Looking up, I see a security guard walking towards me, “Bro, they took your sh*t”. What?!? All I can say is “why didn’t you do anything?” He quickly throws his hands up in protest to inform me he can’t do anything except observe. Instead, he offers to take my name and contact info, but I protest, not knowing if I’m in a scam. It sure feels like it. I look around and see the look of exasperation from other customers as they shake their head in disbelief. Yet, no one offers an ounce of help.
Angrily, I pull my car over to gather my thoughts and call 911. “911, What’s your emergency?”— I was just robbed. “At what location?” —Union 76 by the airport. “Oh, we won’t come out there, you can file a police report online if you want”. As if on cue, the same car that robbed me, pulls back into the lot and robs two more cars by smashing their car door windows and grabbing their luggage. “They’re still robbing people!!” I say. “Sorry, we don’t have support to send”. I hang up.
I quickly pull out my phone after realizing that an iPad and MacBook were in my flight bag. As I activate the FIND MY DEVICE app, my friendly security guard offers sage advice, “I wouldn’t go after them bro, we don’t know if they’re armed”. Well crap, he’s right.
With no other options to pursue, I call my operations duty manager to let him know “I was robbed at the airport. I’m going home”. What a day.
**Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.** When you click on links in this post and make a purchase on Amazon, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
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