I don't post a bunch, not much to share I guess and I haven't come up with anything unique enough to start my own thread but this little saga.....deserves an audience.
I guess I was overdue for a setback or two....or a bunch all at once. The build-up:
Finally did a detail today. 4-hour interior cleaning - a few things are missing (some expensive) but at the end of it all, my rig is still my rig and there's zero mechanical problems and nothing major is broken. So how's that for ya????
I guess I was overdue for a setback or two....or a bunch all at once. The build-up:
- 9/9/19 - drove my LS460 over a concrete curb in a parking lot - one of those planter diamonds in commercial corner lots that formerly held a tree - tree's been cut down (seems to be the new fad) but the concrete diamond is left behind as a parking lot nuisance, it was dark as I was looking for a new dry cleaner in a plaza I don't visit often and boom, minor blip on my part since I never even saw the damn thing but I went right over the corner of it. Fortunately no major damage but man was I ticked off.
- 9/10/19 - conveyor car wash - I've got a monthly subscription so I just jump right in line whereas the lifted Dodge pickup truck in front of me had a teen employee in the cab. As the Dodge approached the end of the car wash, the truck stalled and the kid in the cab did everything he could to re-start the truck which meant he had his foot on the brake for a couple of minutes (older truck, wouldn't fire right up......nightmare unfolding right before my eyes) - all the while the conveyor kept running and had the front of my LS460 slamming right into the ball hitch of the Dodge......over and over and over. Car wash and I are......not yet settled - fun.
- Same week - TWO, yes TWO separate plumbing incidents at our house. One of which required some in-wall repairs from an expert - not inexpensive, big cleanup effort.
- 9/11 - the airlines let myself and a guy on my team know that our flights departing that Friday got all sorts of messed up.....international flights out to Minsk, Belarus (not exactly close). 24 hours of trying to get things sorted - no way he was going to make it there in <40 hours so I cancelled his trip (which was a bummer). This is my product team, my meetings, I had to go.
- THEN.....9/12 - with <24 hours before I'm supposed to head out for Minsk I get a weird text from a buddy. Things go like this:
- "Maria has your iPad"......I don't know a Maria, he must have meant to send that to someone else.
- I call him. 5 minutes of talking, I'm convinced I need to talk to Maria (whoever that is).
- 5 minutes otp with Maria (nice lady, seems sincere, I'm validating a few details with her verbally as well as seeing the emails she'd been sending me earlier in the day)......and I'm convinced she has my iPad. Thing is, that iPad is one I keep at a second home (our "cabin"). As I start the drive out clear to the OTHER SIDE OF TOWN to pick up my iPad (NOT UP NORTH WHERE MY IPAD SHOULD BE)......I start to realize our place must have been broken into and the more I think about it.....the real thing of value up there is my GX470.
- During the drive, I finally get a neighbor to answer the phone who lives up there. Ask him to run by my place to check things out and he exclaims "we're all locked and loaded up here, we're all on high alert". Huh??? I find out from him that a convict being extradited back to North Carolina escaped at the Circle K maybe 2 miles from our place (he escaped on 9/11). Video of him fleeing.
- He calls me 30 minutes later - yup, broken window, he's armed/nervous/not going anywhere closer to the place and has called the Sheriff's office, waiting for them to arrive.
- Meanwhile, Maria and her husband show up. Yup, my iPad. You want some real crazy???? Check this out:
- 5am-ish on the morning of 9/12, her husband is driving to work in his pickup truck. Sees a lifted SUV with a ladder, roof rack, big tires, etc. and thinks......that thing looks great for camping! Just sticks in his mind a bit since he's apparently an outdoorsy guy.
- While at the stop light he's sitting at, he hears a "thunk" - it's dark (5am-ish), can't figure out what that was......light goes green and he and the lifted SUV go off on their separate ways.
- He returns home from work later that day. Gets out of his truck, walking to his house and notices a black rectangle in the bed of his truck. Picks it up and it's an.....iPad!
- Goes inside, excitedly gives it to his wife who has recently been stating she wants a tablet. She, in turn, realizes it's someone else's and decides to do the right thing. I don't keep that iPad locked (it just sits at our cabin to watch Netflix occasionally when we're all up there).
- Because the same iCloud account is on that iPad and my iPhone......she finds the linked account and starts directly calling all the people that have recently sent me text messages. She finally got my friend to reply to her (hence the "Maria has your iPad" text noted above).
- So the working theory is that the thief probably assumed tracking was enabled on my iPad (which it was NOT) so he threw it out of my GX and into the bed of the pickup truck hoping it would throw off the GPS tracking).
- Had Maria not started pinging people who'd sent me text messages, I never would have been the wiser and never would have quickly been able to figure out my GX was some 175 miles west of where it was supposed to be. All of that put the police on alert out there on the west-side of town where they started focusing all of their efforts.
- 9/21 - over a week later and after my flight from Poland back to Chicago (meetings done, 20-hour layover in Poland). Checking my phone while waiting for luggage and customs and THEY CAUGHT THE SOB!!!! WOW!!!!
- 8-hour standoff, my GX and 7 other stolen vehicles recovered.
- 9/23 I get my GX out of impound - first glance everything is fine. Deeper look:
- my Trasharoo is full of his dirty clothes, underwear included
- one of my hunting backpacks is full of dollar-store bathroom "stuff"
- one of the rattiest pillows and most disgusting blankets I've ever seen are stuffed in the back
- been smoked in.....a lot - Fabreeze is doing a pretty good job so far helping eliminate the odors
- clearly been sleeping in the rig with someone else - both front seats are laid back
- half-empty bottle of Vodka and multiple Gatorades strewn throughout the cabin
- lots of Clorox-wipes......started right up, drives FINE
Finally did a detail today. 4-hour interior cleaning - a few things are missing (some expensive) but at the end of it all, my rig is still my rig and there's zero mechanical problems and nothing major is broken. So how's that for ya????
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